Ethics in Writing

Nature of Ethics
-Recent awareness of ethics is mostly influenced by technology
-Making judgments about values-The general public is becoming more involved in decisions made about technology and society where ethics are overlooked and the outcome could affect them Ex: radioactive waster disposal
-The ethical responsibilities involved in technical writing are simply to relay faithfully information between transmitter and receiver, compared to a transparent windowpane providing a view of a scene.
-Technical communication has expanded in the way that one must present information in various formats specific to the audience you are presenting to.

Why Study Ethics?
-"The unexamined life is not worth living" - Socrates
-If we can't reason why we make certain "ethical" decisions how can we persuade others to support our decision

What is Ethics?
-We are bright, sensitive, earnest people who often face real ethical dilemmas and we must weigh our actions and become our own ethical experts
-Ethical burdens fall on each individual and no one else can face your specific circumstances
-History of ethics says that social considerations outweigh self interest.
-Need to know how others feel about ethic responsibility so that eventually we can better understand ourselves.

Our Expectations
-Ethics is problematic and the situations will not be absolutely clear such as in logic or science
-Social circumstances must be included in ethical decisions and without the input of others you cannot say you have arrived at a truly ethical decision.

Terminology
-Values- the intentions or ends that guide an action
-Absolute-definite, unchanging, and inflexible (they way we think about laws)
-Relative- changing in relation to circumstances (when ethical guidelines become so flexible that eventually there are no ethics at all).

Survey of Ethics in Communication and Rhetoric
-What we write has consequences so we must portray ethics and values in our writing

Limitations of History
-History and theory can help clear up a situation but cannot make decisions for us. We cannot take past decisions and apply towards present situations.


Ethics and Rhetoric Linked
-Those that believe technical communication is not a for of rhetoric also believe it doesn’t involve ethics because your only relaying factual information.
-Technical communication is ethical when the information presented is accurate and factual.

Plato and Socrates
-Plato has a very absolute view on ethics and thinks of it as a matter of pleasing God.
-Practicing ethics will get us closer to God which is the ultimate goal
-Socrates believed in constantly examining and reflecting on all aspects of our lives so that we can determine what is right for us to do.
1) Insisted on doing the right thing regardless of the consequences
2) Ethics is a matter of pleasing God
3) Ethical behavior requires active social involvement
-Good communication must be ethical and deal only with what is true, good, and right.

Aristotle
-The right course of action in any given situation cannot be known but instead we rely on human judgment.
-In a contest between two sides the one that is true and factual will naturally prevail over the other.
-Believed in certain knowledge and uncertain knowledge
-Viewed ethics as virtue

The Sophists
-Made up of freethinkers and teachers
-Plato attacked the sophists as representing the worst sort of values and communication.
-Believed there are no absolutes and values depend on the circumstances
-There is no single, absolute, true reality
-Relied on the power of language to shape thoughts and minds
-Language is everything and even molds our ethics and values depending on the circumstances

Recent Times
-Ethics dealt with truths and rhetoric dealt with what was false
-Ethics was a religious matter

Hegel
-Values arrive from social forces that were trying to preserve their own self-interest
-All knowledge, especially about values was absolute

Perelman
-There is no absolute basis or authority for values
-Purely logical reasoning is rhetorical because is aimed towards persuading an argument.
-Nothing absolute exists in rhetorical language

Burke
-Language use should be guided by carefully weighed judgments
-Power of language to negotiate knowledge and value judgments

Weaver
-All language involves expressing some values
-Believed even the so called neutrality of science and scientists is actually a value system
-Values serve as the foundation for rhetoric providing the substance toward which the audience is persuaded.

Rhetoric, Knowledge, and Values
-Scientific reports are only as good as the values they adhere to.
-One of the elements of reasoned arguments is that they are not absolute but socially relative because our differences in time, cultures, and communities.(Toulmin)
-Societies and their hierarchy of different social levels is formed through language. (Foucalt)
-Beverly Sauer uses example of a governmental investigation of a mining accident and that voices of the wives of the victims were ignored because they were not technical experts but in reality they knew of the danger before any indications became apparent.