Philosophy of the Medium

Taking the principle of the ‘disappearance of the medium’ into new territory, Philosophy of the Medium by John Lechte questions the pervasive influence of the principle that the ‘medium is the message’. Bold and expansive, this book argues that we have for too long focused on the technical specificities of media, when we should have been focusing on what it is that mediums do, that is, on their ‘content’ rather than their formal and technical qualities.

With a re-reading of McLuhan, this volume offers a study of the conflicting views of technics as a medium in Bernard Stiegler’s work, as well as an investigation into the extent to which Michel Serres’ work on communication sheds light on the nature of medium. Engaging also with the concept of Object-Oriented Ontology (OOO) and the notion of probabilistic objects in quantum physics and climate change, Lechte explores the way in which measurement is perceived to ‘create’ reality.

Concluding with a fascinating study of the implications of consciousness as a medium, Philosophy of the Medium ultimately reconsiders and offers a deeper understanding of what we mean by the term ‘media’: it is that which comes ‘between’ and which facilitates the transmission of content, essentially a creator of possibilities, yet never present as such in the light of its success as a vehicle for meaning.