DOMBROWSKI

Ch. 1 NATURE OF ETHICS

Ethics = judgment of values (values differ, is there any correct value?)
Ethics in Technical Communication
-Responsibility attributed to the reader/the technology (not on the communicator)
-recently has moved more to the actually writing and the writer
Considering the impact of what is chosen to not to be communicated
If you can't examine and derive why you have done something then it is likely you will never convince others to do so
The often quoted Socrates "the unexamined life is not worth living"
Be open to other viewpoints (only path to being ethical)
Ethics is choice (if there is no choice, then no ethics are involved)

What are the ethics of the author?
-on page six he deliberately displays his own faults
-on page nine he has to state that he is not trying to slight anyone

Ch. 2 SURVEY OF ETHICS

Rhetoric is nowadays can simple be called communication
There are no universal solutions. Ethics (choices) are continuous (being changed/updated)
If there is a loving attitude between communicator and audience, good chance that it will be ethical
Plato- tied with spirituality, ethics come before rhetoric
Aristotle- things that are true/just have a natural tendency to prevail
the Sophists- no absolutes, all point are equally valid, the weaker point can be made to look the stronger, rhetoric comes before ethics
recent Thinkers- more similar to Sophists, language is powerful
The pen is mightier than the sword

Think before you act