Digital Media Ethics by Charles Ess

Author:Charles Ess
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Wiley
Published: 2020-02-18T16:00:00+00:00

2. THE ETHICAL REQUIREMENTS OF DEMOCRACY?

In an early effort to apply Habermasian and feminist thought to the topic of online democracy, I concluded by observing that the discourse ethic requires the ability to engage in critical discourse and the moral commitment to practicing the ability to take others’ perspectives and thus seek solidarity with others in a plurality of democratic discourse communities (Ess 1996, 220).

In the ethical frameworks we have examined here, we can rephrase this to include two ethical components:

a deontological insistence on respecting the arguments and experiences of Others as equals in a shared discourse community; and

a virtue ethics argument that the correlative perspective-taking required for a free and equal dialogue and debate is an ability that must be practiced – i.e., such perspective-taking stands as a habit of excellence or virtue that requires practice if it is to be acquired and exercised well. By the same token, the Habermasian requirement for empathic solidarity likewise invokes the primary virtue of empathy – again, a capacity or ability that must be acquired and practiced.

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