A phenomenology of intercultural communication /

Abstract

The present dissertation has two major purposes. The first is to examine the origin of intercultural communication as an independent academic field cultivated in the US. In order to carry out this task, this study employs Edmund Husserl's archaeology as a method. In short, this study unveils intercultural communication has developed as a manifestation of Western ideologies (e.g., individualism, pragmatism, etc.). The second objective, on the other hand, is to examine the necessary conditions which constitute the phenomenon of intercultural communication we experience in reality. Eidetic analysis is employed as an appropriate method for accomplishing this objective. The present eidetic analysis elucidates that differences in logics and styles are two necessary conditions which constitute a phenomenon of intercultural communication. This study suggests intercultural communication is not a pre-determined fixed phenomenon, but a unique place where different logics and different styles meet together. It is a manifestation of basic human similarities and meaningful human diversity. This dissertation also indicates latency (i.e., latent presuppositions, latent topics, latent methods, and latent theory, etc.) in the field of intercultural communication in the end.