Subjekt - Medium - Wirklichkeit

Traditional western philosophy of language makes a (mostly categorial) distinction between the world (or sphere) of objects (in the reality `out there`) and the world (or sphere or domain) of language (which is denoting the objects). Language - or the world of words, of signs, also in some way `the semiosphere` - is directed towards the objects, at least in the realistic epistemological tradition, but also in idealistic or in the latest (radical-)constructivist approaches. The categorial distinction between language and reality, between words and objects, between signs and its referents seems to be so evident and basic that nearly every philosophical or theoretical system does not question it, but rather builds up the system on that (dualistic) distinction. The Italian operationalist and cybernetician Silvio Ceccato was one of the first scientists in the last century who questioned these presuppositions of thought. Josef Mitterer was the first to offer an alternative: the philosophy of non-dualism. In this philosophical approach, descriptions of objects are not directed towards the objects; objects are on the contrary descriptions so far which are permanently continued by new descriptions from now on. The philosophy of the dynamic unity between the description of the object and the object of description is an entirely new approach which is so far only published in German in two books by Josef Mitterer, an Austrian philosopher: "Das Jenseits der Philosophie" (The Beyond of Philosophy, 1992) and "Die Flucht aus der Beliebigkeit" (The Flight from Arbitrariness, 2001). Mitterers philosophy transcends the positions of Wittgenstein, Kuhn, Rorty, and even Maturana or von Glasersfeld. My book "Subjekt - Medium - Wirklichkeit" (Subject - Medium - Reality) marks the first attempt to operationalise the philosophical work of Silvio Ceccato and especially Josef Mitterer to design an new media theory which differs from radical constructivism (Maturana, von Glasersfeld, and others) and systems theory (Parsons, Luhmann) in very precise ways. The philosophical foundation of that position and the theoretical part cover most of the book. The last chapter deals with empirical trends towards `non-dualistic circumstances` in current media realities and intends to stimulate new directions of research.