Chapter 2 Blog Post

Our textbook states that communication ethics is about "articulation of a given good" (28).  Given the prevalence of a variety of understandings of the good in our society today, it is important to make an effort to understand opposing senses of the good.  The book states that this variety of understandings of the good "make[s] it problematic to call anyone to account for violation of a common good" (9).  The book suggests that disagreeing on values is a part of postmodernity, which supports a variety of interpretations about what is right and wrong.  When the book talks about the "error of our moment" it is saying that acknowledging the diversity in our world is key to effective communication ethics.

The textbook tells us that the many types of communication ethics in our world today are influenced by varying goods.  These values are different, therefore the ethics that we each have are different.  Sometimes these different views clash and that is where communication ethics becomes important: in how we address views of the good that are not in agreement with our own.




On page 41, communication ethics is described as "the intersection of philosophy of communication and applied communication responsive to narrative ground and the historical moment of application, requiring a rhetorical turn that seeks to protect and promote a given sense of the good that must fend against other goods in a time of challenge and change."  This book so far emphasizes that diversity makes it important for us all to understand the differences in the views that are present in our world and that as a postmodern world, there should be room for multiple interpretations of what is good.