Ethics is becoming increasingly popular in all aspects of society: media, business, industries, technology and science, and as discussed in this work: technical communication.
In the past, technical communication was seen as black and white, mechanical writing. The writer was simply a liaison between the "transmitter and the receiver". Recently though it has been changing and this change has brought up the question of ethics. With this change, has come responsibilities:
1. uses to which the information will be put
2. the range of possible readings of the document
3. the consequences of the communications at all levels of society beyond immediate audience
4. consideration of what you are not writing
Grounds for ethical judgment: what makes a particular ethical judgment right for us
"The unexamined life is not worth living." Socrates- In the same way, there has to be guidelines by which ethical decisions are made in the workplace, or else you will be able to justify "wrong" decisions in the moment or even afterwards.
Ethics is not like science- there are no clear cut answers. We are each our own ethical expert, because in the end we decide what is right and wrong.
Ethics- the general field of study or the the theories of particular historical figures, value system that anyone might hold, value assumptions of an abstract principle or movement
Assumptions:
1. Ethics is problematic.
2. Ethics is both individual and social.
3. Ethics is neither an entirely absolute nor an entirely relative matter.
4. It would be irresponsible to blindly accept or blindly reject the authority of others in ethical matters.
5. No single ethical approach or theory is appropriate for all situations.
Perspectives in this work:
Aristotle, Kant, utilitarianism adn recent feminist theories, Levinas, Gert and Confucius
Scope:
How ethics relates to technical communications in ways that are not apparent or non-obvious but no less real and powerful. ex. how technical information is obtained not copyright laws
Rhetoric- the use of reasoned arguments based on socially accepted values and presented to inform and persuade in order to accomplish some socially desirable action such as a policy decision
Persuasion- the willing informed collective agreement of a critically thinking audience
Plato- ethical values come before any communication; ethics is absolute, unchanging and not subject to contingencies; ethics is not a matter of taking a vote; it is trying to understand the will of god
Socrates- first insisted on doing the right thing regardless of consequences, ethics is a matter of pleasing god, third ethical behavior requires active social involvement
Aristotle- communication between competing sides on a controversial matter reveals the proper values and the right course of action; more practical than Plato
sophists- communication act can alter our ethical values because there is no absolute for ethics; values are relative because they depend on circumstances; rhetoric and its techniques are separate from ethics
Hegel- values derive from social forces, not absolute ethics
Perelman- our language is our values
Burke- language use guided by carefully weighed judgment
Weaver- all language use (even technical writing) inescapably involves expressing some values
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