Epistemological modesty: Critical reflections on public relations thought

Abstract

This article is a critical thinking inquiry into a number of epistemologically related problems with the scholarly conceptions and real-world practices of public relations. Resonating with the epistemological modesty of the Scottish Enlightenment, and approaching public relations from the perspectives of such marginal directions as phenomenology, microsociology and literary theory, the article examines 10 problems with modern public relations thought as it has been articulated from the early public relations ‘pioneers’ to its popular conceptualization, in recent decades, as systems-based symmetry-excellence.