Ch. 5 Dialogic Ethics

I liked this chapter for many reasons.  The main reason was that the language put a really positive and accepting spin on Dialogic Theory.  From what I got out of the reading, this theory is based on the openness, acceptance to new ideas as well as not forcing people to become listeners, but to let them do it on their own free will.  I like, and can easily identify with, the idea that learning is the key.  Learning is how you can open yourself up to new ideas and to new people, while still being able to express and expand on your own personal knowledge base.  I like Gadamer's ideas about bias, because especially in our society where everyone seems to be very opinionated as well as having completely different backgrounds and standpoints, biases are inevitable.  But just because they are unavoidable, does not mean they need to prevent us from understanding and having a willingness to learn about other people's perspectives.  By accepting and learning about other people's biases, learning not only is a challenge but it is fun and exciting because each dialogue brings something new to the table.  I think Freire's ideas tie really nicely into Gadamer's ideas because he states, "...reserve dialogue for those who want to learn..."  Communication is a difficult task because there are so many opportunities for misunderstandings, and communication ethics is even more challenging.  But from the definition of communication ethics that we have established so far, (understanding there is more than one right way to do and think about things), there could not be a more important concept than learning.