Ch. 6 Public Discourse Ethics

While I was reading this chapter, I found that this facet of communication ethics is very applicable to my life at this moment. "Public discourse ethics protects and promotes a place of conversation for diversity of ideas and persons" (pg. 100). The book then breaks down public discourse ethics into three metaphors: publics discourse, public decision making and differentiation of public and private space (pg. 100). Considering we are all college students at this time, learning to communicate ethically in a public arena is crucial. To have ethical public discourse, it is incredibly important to put the protection of the good of the public and the public space above the good of an individual. Public discourse cannot reach it's full efficiency if a person protects their personal good because then, diversity of ideas and people will suffer consequently. We also need to make sure that public and private space is differentiation without forcing the private and public to be exclusively separate. Overall, this chapter is very relatable and I can see examples of this in my life, but the chapter did seem to ramble and at times, seemed to somewhat confuse this rather simple ideas.

As I said above, I think that this idea of ethically upholding public discourse can be beneficial and easily related to our lives at this time. While I was reading this chapter, I couldn't help, but think of how this idea applies perfectly to our classroom. We have people of different genders and races and so, the public arena is most definitely filled with diversity of ideas and peoples. In our class, there are times were we have to discuss things that are controversial or difficult to talk about and if we don't use public discourse ethics in our dialogue, it could be problematic. The chapter describes the public arena as a "sacred space" and says "to nourish this space is to keep before us diversity of ideas and persons while keeping the private life differentiated and clean" (pg. 109). Instead of promoting our good and shutting down to diverse feelings of the good, we need to welcome the differences to help us form ideas. At times, I think that I know my particular good, but I love hearing other people's opinions and at times, hearing all the different feelings and opinions helps me rethink my own Good. "Public discourse ethics requires us to discern, decide withs one self-questioning, and change our minds when necessary" (pg. 104). In the class, I really do think we have a great handle of public discourse ethics and we have created a safe space where we have been promoting great conversation through different ideas, opinion and standpoints.