A. Defining “Ethics.”  Ethical Concerns involve ….

1. Right v Wrong -> actions with consequences  (action can be verbal)

2. A serious conflict between values, and/or duties, needs, policies, goals.

3. The difference between "is" and "ought."

4. Use of consistent standards.  Usually the standards are …

a. non-personal

b. cross-situational

c. enduring

5. A good ethical analysis is able

a. To specify the grounds of the analysis, that is, what traditions, principles, and standards are used to arrive at a conclusion about what is ethical behavior. 

b. To justify the reasonableness and relevance of those standards to the case at hand.

c. To reach a clear decision based on the standards used.

B. Freedom requires responsibility -- Why?

1. Communication requires pattern / order / structure -- thus there can be no free speech without the limits of an ordered symbol system

2. Communication leads to ethics inevitably (see 1 above).   If we are communicators, we are responsible for maintaining the ordered system.

3. All language is persuasive at some level. Thus, all communication is consequential.

4. Communication IS society, the social glue.  Bad/unethical communication is an attack on society and civilization itself.