Medium, Messenger, Transmission

This rich study provides a comprehensive introduction to media philosophy while offering a new perspective on the concept and function of transmission media in all systems of exchange. Krämer uses the figure of the messenger as a key metaphor, examining a diverse range of transmission events, including the circulation of money, translation of languages, angelic visitations, spread of infectious diseases, and processes of transference and counter-transference that occur during psychoanalysis.

Dr. Sybille Krämer is professor of theoretical philosophy at the Freie Universität Berlin. She is the author of six books: Technik, Gesellschaft und Natur: Versuch über ihren Zusammenhang (1982), Symbolische Maschinen: Die Idee der Formalisierung in geschichtlichem Abriss (1988), Berechenbare Vernunft: Kalkül und Rationalismus im 17. Jahrhundert (1991), Sprache, Sprechakt, Kommunikation: Sprachtheoretische Positionen des 20. Jahrhunderts (2001), Gewalt der Sprache - Sprache der Gewalt (2005), and Medium, Bote, Übertragung: Kleine Metaphysik der Medialität (2008).

I. Prologue 1. Transmission and/or Understanding? On the Postal and Erotic Principles of Communication II. Methodological Considerations 2. Is a Metaphysics of Mediality Possible? III. Introductions 3. Walter Benjamin 4. Jean-Luc Nancy 5. Michel Serres 6. Régis Debray 7. John Durham Peters IV. The Messenger Model 8. An Initial Summary 9. The Messenger as Topos V. Transmission Relations 10. Angels: Communication through Hybridization 11. Viruses: Contagion through Transcription 12. Money: The Transmission of Property through Desubstantiation 13. Translation: Language Transmission as Complementation 14. Psychoanalysis: Transmission through Affective Resonance 15. Witnessing: Bearing Witness through Credibility VI. What Does Transmission Mean? 16. Making Perceptible 17. Reading Traces VII. Test 18. Maps, Charts, Cartography VIII. Epilogue 19. World View Dimensions, Ambivalences, Possible Directions for Further Research, Bibliography