Toward a hermeneutic phenomenology of communication

The relationships among ontology, phenomenology, hermeneutics, and communication are developed. Communication is both a resource of the social world and that which constitutes the social world. As such, communication is hermeneutic —the interpretive and critical scheme —and the ontological foundation of the social world. Phenomenology is the perspective in and through which this foundation — seen as presuppositions — is critically examined. The phenomenological and positivistic perspectives are contrasted in terms of the respective emphases on ontological and epistemological objectives. Finally, a portion of a study is discussed as an illustration of the preliminary moves made in a phenomenological approach to communication research.