ABSTRACT
Aristotle defines man in terms of rationality — rationality thus becomes the defining feature of man. e upshot of this idea is that to be human will necessarily mean to be rational. In other words: rationality is constitutive of being human. One will unmistakably encounter a similar idea while going through Ramchandra Gandhi’s book, Presuppositions of Human Communication (1974). e same as rationality, communication too can be said to be one, if not the only, defining feature of human beings. e ability to communicate with one another is so central to our existence that without this we will cease to be human. In Gandhi’s argument, to be human implies having self-consciousness at the heart of which lies the idea of self-identity. I thus realise the idea of myself as myself when I get involved in a communicative relationship with you. e essential core of communication lies in the act of addressing one another. In the act of addressing me, you identify me, where identification is achieved not due to the result of satisfying a set of preconditionalities. In Gandhi’s expression, you identify me non-descriptively and nonreferentially (i.e., not causally). Identification is sought here purely on the basis of meaning. For you to identify me implies, as Gandhi puts it, ‘You mean me’. In addressing me, you thus plant into my mind this idea of me as myself which, according to Gandhi, is the expression of a soul. is constitutes the essence of being a human which is meant to be an autonomous subject that forms the metaphysic of human communication.
