Chapter 3: The Pragmatic Good of Theory

This chapter discusses six metaphors of communication practices and how they relate to communication ethics. These metaphors were democratic communication ethics, universal-humanitarian communication ethics, codes, procedures, and standards in communication ethics, contextual communication ethics, narrative communication ethics, and lastly dialogic communication ethics. Upon reading the detailed descriptions for each metaphor I found it very interesting to reflect on how I have seen each put to use in my life. The one I thought was most interesting to read about was narrative communication ethics.

Narrative communication ethics is the idea that people use stories to help guide their lives. These stories are about how the world should be or is and help further the good that’s in the stories. I really liked this idea of communication ethics because we learn so much about life through stories. Personally, I have always found stories to be the best learning method because they tend to stick with me longer. The outcomes of these narratives provide a learning opportunity for how to communicate with others through various situations. Narratives have the ability to help guide us through life, especially with assisting us in answering questions we struggle with.