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Article In: Language and Dialogue: Online-First Articles

Situating dialogue and ethics

Why it Matters

 | Plymouth State University
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Abstract
Dialogue is important, especially when considering how our words and actions impact others. This essay situates the importance of dialogue and ethics in the pragmatics of human relationships and engagements through 1994. “Existential Homelessness: A Contemporary Case for Dialogue.” In The Reach of Dialogue: Confirmation, Voice, and Community, ed. by Rob Anderson, Kenneth Cissna, and Ronald C. Arnett, 229–246. NY: Hampton Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar warning about existential homelessness, Das, Saitya Brata. 2025. “The Mystery of Dialogue.” The Journal of Dialogic Ethics 4(2): 108–115. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar aesthetic understanding of the mystery of dialogue, and Michael Mitias, Michael H. 2023. Human Dialogue. NY: Peter Lang. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar formal conditions for the possibility of dialogue. The essay then moves to a discussion that lays out one way to prepare for ethical dialogic interconnections with others advocated by Arnett, Das, and Mitias, through an active practice of leisure (Holba, Annette M. 2007. Philosophical Leisure: Recuperative Praxis for Human Communication. Milwaukee, WI: Marquette University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar; 2013. Transformative Leisure: A Philosophy of Communication. Milwaukee, WI: Marquette University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar). This places dialogue and ethics transversally “betwixt and between” (Schrag, Calvin O. 1994. Philosophical Papers: Betwixt and Between. NY: SUNY.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar) self and other as dialogue is the structure of pragmatics (Weigand, Edda. 2021. “Dialogue: The Complex Whole.” Language and Dialogue 111: 457–486. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar).
Article outline
  • 1.Dialogue matters at conceptualizing and practicing ethics
    • 1.1Constructive hermeneutic approach
    • 1.2Multiplicity of perspectives
    • 1.3Roadmap of essay
  • 2.Being without dialogue: Existential homelessness
    • 2.1Moment of parenthesis
    • 2.2Need for common center of shared ideas and community
    • 2.3Existential homelessness: Risk to dialogue
    • 2.4Existential homelessness: Detrimental to the human condition
  • 3.The aesthetical and mysterious nature of dialogue
    • 3.1The ecstasy of dialogue
    • 3.2The “unprethinkable”
    • 3.3Dialogue: Exposure to the manifestation of existence
  • 4.Dialogue as the foundation of life
  • 5.Ethical considerations for dialogue
    • 5.1Persuasion
    • 5.2Communicational criticism
    • 5.3Empathetic communication
    • 5.4Developing a sentiment toward ethical thinking
  • 6.Preparing for dialogue: One possible way
    • 6.1A leisure practice
    • 6.2Differentiating leisure and recreation: Four categories
    • 6.3Differentiation through contraries
      • 6.3.1Craftsmen/Technicians
      • 6.3.2Participants/Spectators
      • 6.3.3Play/Game
  • 7.Why dialogue matters
    • 7.1Dialogue as a complex whole
    • 7.2Aforethought requires ethicality
    • 7.3Human beings are dialogical
  • 8.Conclusion
  • Author queries
  • References
References (32)
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