| The aim of Process metaphysics and cultural criticism is to begin development toward a radically democratic critical practice in Communication Studies based on philosophical assumptions found in process and personalist thought. Process thought, particularly that of Alfred North Whitehead, was introduced to Communication Studies scholars by David K. Berlo in 1960. Other scholars followed the process trajectory into the 1970s and, currently, some philosophers of communication adopt a process worldview. In this study, I present an argument for a more fully developed process theory of reality in the context of philosophy of communication research and locate specific theoretical implications in the context of critical cultural studies by describing the process-oriented cultural critic. My general contention is that a process metaphysics (in contrast to a traditional substance metaphysics) provides a constructive philosophical basis for practicing anti-reductive cultural criticism that takes agency and the possibility of novelty seriously. Personalism, I finally argue, provides the ethical basis for a process-oriented critical practice that moves toward radical democracy.; Chapter I of the dissertation provides a review of relevant literature in Communication Studies concerned with process thought and underlines the need for a sustained discussion of process metaphysics in contrast with substance metaphysics. Chapter II presents an overview of Whitehead's speculative and systematic method and describes some key process concepts in Whitehead's Process and reality, contrasting those with substantialist assumptions. Chapter III examines temporality, first describing an anti-reductive temporal philosophy, then illustrating how an emphasis on the past or the present carries with it substantialist presuppositions. Concluding, Chapter III presents an argument for prioritizing possibility by adopting a future orientation with respect to conceiving change in process terms. Chapter IV outlines the working philosophical assumptions---informed by the previous two chapters---of the process-oriented cultural critic. Chapter V introduces personalism as a promising philosophical basis for developing an ethical framework within which the process-oriented critic can practice. Ultimately, Chapter V advances an argument for a radically democratic critical practice that challenges concerned critics to question the boundary traditionally drawn between human animals and all others and consider that boundary's implications for critical practice. |
