Humans use symbols, rationality, persuasion, and judgment in deciding ethical values. For me this chapter felt abstract. Referring to humans as animals made the concepts harder for me to relate to.
The part of this section that most stood out to me was on page 40, it discussed persuasion. Our responsibilities to ourselves and others assess instances of persuasion. Our obligations to ourselves are openness and resoluteness. I never have really thought of holding an opinion as an ethical persuasion standard.
Being open is something I think more people need to be aware of. I have always struggled with one-sided opinions and people unwilling to address other world-views. As Christians, I think it is our duty to be more open to other ideas. In a Christian environment people tend to go with the trends and not hear other sides, but we must understand that being open can help us further understand, communicate, and persuade more clearly to those with differing views. On top of that we have our resoluteness to fall back on.
The duty to others ethically in communication is also important, gentleness and compassion. I think in the Christian community we throw out the word compassion often, but do not know what it means. Compassion is selfless, and not done with alternative motives. This creates more ethical implications. For example, is serve day done out of compassion, to persuade non-profits they are worthy of our time, or is George Fox University persuading the public that it is a school that reaches out?
Gentleness is to persuade without violence. The example that I thought of well reading this was the protest at the Lure exotic club on 99w. Students rallied against the club for its "School Girls" themed night. This was not violent, but was it gentle? I am not sure.
The other thing I found intriguing about this chapter is the assumptions we make in our communication, are these assumptions accurate? Are the sources credible? Is what we are being told coming for the benefit of humankind and not just as a means for personal gain? This chapter repeats that lying, anything said in deceit, is unethical. I agree, I have always been raised not to lie, and I find it tacky. It makes communication more blurred and complex than is necessary. Although, we still assume people lie to us?
My question is are their times when lying could be considered ethical? What in our human nature makes us think that deceit is acceptable?
interesting questions about real-life situations here at Fox . . .
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