By Way of Interruption: Levinas and the Ethics of Communication

by Amit Pinchevski

By Way of Interruption presents a radically different way of thinking about communication ethics. While modern communication thought has traditionally viewed successful communication as ethically favorable, Pinchevski proposes the that ethical communication does not ultimately lie in the successful completion of communication but rather in its interruption; that is, in instances where communication falls short, goes astray, or even fails. Such interruptions, however, do not mark the end of the relationship, but rather its very beginning, for within this interruption communication faces the challenge of alterity. Drawing mainly on the philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas, Pinchevski explores the status of alterity in prevalent communication theories and Levinas’s philosophy of language and communication, especially his distinction between the Said and the Saying, and demonstrates the extent to which communication thought and practice have been preoccupied with the former while seeking to excommunicate the latter. With a strong interdisciplinary spirit, this book proposes an intellectual adventure of risk, uncertainty and the possibility of failure in thinking through the ethics of communication as experienced by an encounter with the other.

Genres: Philosophy

294 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2005

About the author

Amit Pinchevski is Associate Professor in the Department of Communication and Journalism at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is the author of By Way of Interruption: Levinas and the Ethics of Communication and Transmitted Wounds: Media and the Mediation of Trauma.

Reviews

[Ben Peters · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pinchevski (full disclosure: I read this before I became good friends with the author) provides here in accessible and even elegant prose rare insight into the philosophy of communication, offering the fascinating thesis that communication is defined not by connection, but by *interruption*... breakdown, gaps, rupture, and the multiform ways we fail to connect. Backlit and colored by the thought of Immanuel Levinas, Pinchevski carefully reclaims this stubborn reluctance of communication to do anything but disappoint the idealists, the counselors, the therapists, the management consultants, and all the rest of us who, if pressed, will admit that more communication is better. Pinchevski says otherwise, and I guaranteed you will be interrupted at some time while reading this book before his point fully seeps in. This little known book is, or at least should be, foundational reading: it is guaranteed to change how the reader thinks about what matters about communication.