Nature of communication: from sociological construct to philosophical tradition in problem statement

The research analyzes the nature of communication within the evolving approaches to dealing with the problem from sociological construct to philosophical tradition. The paper examines the key points of the fundamental sociological works on the ontology of communication as a sociological problem by K.O. Apel and J. Habermas. It becomes obvious that being a primary focus of sociological theories of any kind, communication as a foundational sphere of a human being should be treated as a construct of objective reality. However, communication has stronger and core potential from the philosophical perspective. This point of view is illustrated through the assessment of the impact of communication on the consciousness of the individual in the works of M. Castells. The author assumes that a narrow sociological view on the concept of communication could not reflect its full ontological nature and significance.