The End of communication and communication as the end : instrumental and non-instrumental attitude

Abstract

When trying to reflect upon the end of communication, which is one of the most common activities of living beings, the problem of the term's ambiguity arises. The term derives from the Latin word communicare meaning to transmit, to share, to make common. A single definition of communication is not available, perhaps the most widely this process was described by mathematician W. Weaver as denotation of all the procedures by which one mind may affect another, or one mechanism affects another mechanism (Weaver, 1949). Communication can have many tasks and ends as they are determined by a variety of domains where communication occurs. This article states that according to the end pursued, instrumental and non-instrumental attitudes to communication can be distinguished. If the attitude is instrumental, communication usually have a predetermined end, whereas in the case of the non-instrumental attitude, communication itself is the end, in other words, the end is the absence of the goal (or bypassing it).