How shall we say: “Reality is socially constructed through communication?”

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Communication and rhetorical theorists are increasingly attracted to the view that reality is socially constructed through communication. This paper examines two ways of stating this claim. The first, intersubjectivism, restricts the concepts of “reality” and “truth” to consensually validated constructs, or meanings. The second, critical rationalism, maintains that reality and truth are objective—even though our knowledge of reality is contingent upon symbolic constructions. It is argued that only critical rationalism provides the basis for a consistent critique of reality constructions which obscure their own rhetorical foundations and resist revision.

This publication has 16 references indexed in Scilit: