Ways of Communicating

Ways of Communicating is a stimulating exploration of the single most powerful force that gives humankind its control over the natural world--the communication among us. So integral a part of everyday life as to be taken for granted, yet so multi-faceted as to be notoriously slippery to describe and analyze, the world of communication is treated here from the standpoint of the arts quite as much as the sciences. Speech and body language, fiction and music, communication by neural networks within the brain and by satellite around the globe, all are considered together to give a fascinating view of this elusive aspect of our common humanity. Contributors include P.N. Johnson-Laird on The Nature of Communication; Horace Barlow on The Brain; Patrick Bateson on Animals; Noam Chomsky on Language; D.H. Mellor on Truth; David Lodge on The Novel; Jonathan Miller on Communication without Words; Alexander Goehr on Music; and John Alvey on Telecommunications.