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This collection of papers published in the last forty years documents the author's journey from philosophy of language to text theory and then to an empirical science of literature, ending with a concept of literary studies as a legitimate part of media culture studies. The main emphasis is placed on communication as a social system. The approach used in the book is strictly interdisciplinary in order to cope with the complexity of the different types of human communication, ranging from everyday talk to literary communication or advertising. Radical Constructivism provides the epistemological basis for this approach - a basis that has undergone important modifications in the course of the author's development.

Siegfried J. Schmidt held chairs in philosophy, linguistics, literary studies and communication theory at the Universities of Karlsruhe, Bielefeld, Siegen and Münster from 1968 until 2006. He has worked as guest professor at a number of universities in Europe, Canada, the USA, Japan and Australia. During his academic career he published more than 750 books and articles in 21 languages.