Dialogic Learning as First Principle in Communication Ethics

Abstract

This article frames a dialogic learning theory of communication ethics based upon Buber (1955, 1958), Gadamer (1988), Freire (2000), and Arendt (1998). This communication ethics theory privileges dialogic learning as first principle, accompanied by attending and listening as one searches for temporal answers emerging among three coordinates: (a) communicative partners (self and Other), (b) communicative content, and (c) the communicative demands of the historical moment. We situate a communication ethic within a philosophical and pragmatic first principle: dialogic learning (Arnett, Fritz, & Bell, 2009), working within the tradition of Levinas (2001) that ethics is first philosophy and first principle (Bergo, 1999). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]