Searching for Benedict de Spinoza in the History of Communication: His Influence on Walter Lippmann and Edward Bernays

• In Event: Inventing Communities, Spheres, and Publics

Abstract

Some ideas crucial for the development of communication as a field are both contemporary and also based on classical philosophical thinking. An example of this are the philosopher Benedict of Spinoza’s ideas on the power of images and the importance of emotions to explain human behavior. This article delves into how Spinoza’s ideas have been transmitted to classical public relations authors such as Walter Lippmann and Edward Bernays through their masters and their mentors, George Santayana and Sigmund Freud, respectively. In opposition to these public relations masters of persuasion that had a pessimistic view of human condition, Spinoza’s Ethics is based on a positive anthropology of man that squares well with contemporary and more ethical relationship building approaches to public relations.

Author

• Cesar Garcia, Central Washington U