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An Exploration of Communication Ethics Scholarship and Economic Spheres Duquesne University Duquesne Scholarship Collection Electronic Theses and Dissertations Fall 12-20-2019 An Exploration of Communication Ethics Scholarship and Economic Spheres Andrew Tinker Follow this and additional works at: https://dsc.duq.edu/etd Part of the Economic Theory Commons, Ethics and Political Philosophy Commons, Other Communication Commons, Other Philosophy Commons, Other Rhetoric and Composition Commons, and the Rhetoric Commons Recommended Citation Tinker, A. (2019). An Exploration of Communication Ethics Scholarship and Economic Spheres (Doctoral dissertation, Duquesne University). Retrieved from https://dsc.duq.edu/etd/1857 This Immediate Access is brought to you for free and open access by Duquesne Scholarship Collection. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Duquesne Scholarship Collection. AN EXPLORATION OF COMMUNICATION ETHICS SCHOLARSHIP AND ECONOMIC SPHERES A Dissertation Submitted to McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts Duquesne University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy By Andrew Jarvis Tinker December 2019 Copyright by Andrew Jarvis Tinker 2019 AN EXPLORATION OF COMMUNICATION ETHICS SCHOLARSHIP AND ECONOMIC SPHERES By Andrew Jarvis Tinker Approved November 8, 2019 ________________________________ ________________________________ Ronald C. Arnett, Ph.D. Janie Harden Fritz, Ph.D. Professor of Communication & Rhetorical Professor of Communication & Rhetorical Studies Studies (Committee Chair) (Committee Member) ________________________________ Richard H. Thames, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Communication & Rhetorical Studies (Committee Member) ________________________________ ________________________________ Kristine L. Blair, Ph.D. Ronald C. Arnett, Ph.D. Dean, McAnulty College and Graduate Chair, Department of Communication & School of Liberal Arts Rhetorical Studies Dean of Liberal Arts Professor of Communication & Rhetorical Studies iii ABSTRACT AN EXPLORATION OF COMMUNICATION ETHICS SCHOLARSHIP AND ECONOMIC SPHERES By Andrew Jarvis Tinker December 2019 Dissertation supervised by Professor Ronald C. Arnett This project examines communication ethics scholarship to understand how economics is understood within the field and to establish coordinates for scholars to discuss economic spheres as phenomena that affect communication ethics. Scholars draw from the tradition of virtue ethics to mark communication ethics inquiry as that which explores the practices that protect and promote the “good.” Philosophers of communication and communication ethicists have developed paradigmatic metaphors for the field that allow us to understand the formation of ethical guidelines within communities both familial, corporate, and national, that promote and protect various goods. These metaphors include “hierarchy” and “sameness” from Charles Taylor, who notes that these “social imaginaries” determine the way people are treated within a hierarchy is based upon their role within it. Public identity also determines how others are treated and how communication transpires, which Alasdair Macintyre notes is a tradition dating back to iv Aristotle. The metaphor of private and public spheres, and their boundaries, also form how communicative agents interact. Hannah Arendt’s analysis examines how the conflation of these two spheres in the time of the Industrial Revolution and following, transformed in part by Karl Marx’s writings, created a “social” sphere in which ethical boundaries are continuously contested. This differs greatly from ancient economics, though the ancient period in the West still informs an identification of economics as part of the private sphere and government as part of the public sphere. Drawing from these metaphors, economic spheres affect communication ethics in our present historical moment. Capitalism creates a hierarchy grounded in an ontic presumption of sameness. Its institutions, such as corporations, reify hierarchical order while the freedom to enter into contracts, which Taylor identifies as a primary turn toward “civility” after the 16th-17th century time of “Reform,” requires a presumption of sameness among its members. That is, people are considered to have the same opportunity to participate, or at least are treated as if they do, and, therefore, share equal responsibility for maintaining the system. Socialism reifies sameness and distributes goods based upon that notion. Both systems inform public identities, such as “consumer” and “producer,” and both rely on particular accounts of public and private spheres—debates surrounding neoliberal capitalism, for example, focus on the primary discussion of what role the government should have in market activity. As such, communication ethics scholars are in a unique position to explore economic spheres and how they affect communication as each revolves around a particular good. v DEDICATION I dedicate this dissertation to my family and friends for their unending support of my work and life. In the words of Emily Saliers, “The prize is always worth the rocky ride.” vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENT A cloud of witnesses has brought me to this point in my career. These include my dissertation director Professor Ronald C. Arnett, Professor Pat Arneson, Professor Janie Harden Fritz, and the rest of the faculty at Duquesne University. I also offer my deepest thanks to Mrs. Rita McCaffrey for her commitment to administrative excellence. I also wish to thank my many fellow students and their feedback and support. Outside of Duquesne University, this cloud has included Professor Jolyon Mitchell at the University of Edinburgh and Professor Paul Nimmo at the University of Aberdeen, who encouraged me to continue onto Ph.D. work at the conclusion of my master’s work. The late Professor Marcella Althaus-Reid, of the University of Edinburgh, was of great personal support to me as a student there and introduced me to the work of Canadian journalist Naomi Klein, whose analysis of branding culture and neoliberal economics is largely responsible for my interest in economics and communication ethics. The Rev. Dr. Teresa Eisenlohr has continued to support my academic work and offer encouragement after supervising my M.A. dissertation at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary in 2004. Dr. Cary Wecht, Associate Professor at Youngstown State University, oversaw my undergraduate Senior Capstone Research project at Westminster College (PA) and was the first person to say to me that graduate school was “for you.” She got me to present my project as part of an undergraduate poster session at the 1999 Eastern Communication Association conference in Charleston, WV— my first scholarly presentation. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Abstract …………………………………………………………………………………. v Dedication ……………………………………………………………………………….. vii Acknowledgement ………………………………………………………………………. viii Chapter 1: Economic Spheres and the Turn to Communication Ethics ………………… 1 Introduction ……………………………………….……………………………………. 1 Method …………………………………...…………………….…………….……….. 2 Economic Inquiry as Social …………………..………………………………….….. 7 Ancient Western Economics ………………….…………………..…………………… 10 Social Context ….…….……………………………………………………..….. 10 Terminology ……….……………………………………………………………. 13 Ancient Economics and Contemporary Communication Ethics …….…...…….. 17 A Secular Age ………………………………………………………………..…………. 19 Enchantment – Social Imaginaries and Moral Order I ……..…….….…………... 20 Disenchantment – From Equilibrium to Sameness in the time of Reform ….….. 23 Protestantism and the New Moral Order for Social Interaction ……..…….…….. 28 Into the Modern Period ……………………………………………….…….…… 34 The Turn to Communication Ethics and Economics ………………………………..….39……… Chapter 2: Communication Ethics Inquiry ……………………..……………………….. 45 Defining Communication Ethics ………………………….….…………….………….. 47 Categories of Communication Ethics Inquiry ……………….…….……….………… 50 Democratic Communication Ethics …………………….…………………….… 50 Universal-Humanitarian Communication Ethics ……….…….………………… 55 Contextual Communication Ethics ……………………….…………………….. 61 Narrative Communication Ethics …….……………………..………….……….. 66 Codes, Procedures, and Standards in Communication Ethics ……...…….……… 70 Dialogic Communication Ethics ………………………….………………..…….. 73 Chapter 3: Human Identity and Communication Ethics – Practices and Goods .....…….. 78 Human Identity Formation ………………………………………….……….….…….. 79 Self as Essential and Self as Constructed ……………………….…………..…… 79 Story-Based “I” and Production-Based “I”……………………….……………… 83 Categories of Communication Ethics Inquiry .………………………….…….…..….. 90 Democratic Communication Ethics ………………………………….….………. 90 Universal-Humanitarian Communication Ethics …………………….…..……… 94 Contextual Communication Ethics ……………………………………..….…….. 99 Narrative Communication Ethics …………………………………..…….……… 102 Codes, Procedures, and Standards in Communication Ethics ……...……….…… 105 viii Dialogic Communication Ethics ………………………….…………………… 106 Chapter 4: Communication Ethics and Economic Spheres – An Exploration ….…..…… 109 Capitalism ……………………………………………………………….……….……… 112 McCloskey and the Virtues of Capitalism ……………………….………...….…. 115 Capitalisms and Communication Ethics ………………………….………...…… 120 Capitalism as Neoliberalism ……………………………………….…….…...…. 124 Socialisms and Marxism …………………………………….……………..…….…..… 129 Pluralizing Socialism ………………………………….……………………...…. 129 Communication Ethics and Marxism ………………….………………….…..… 130 Economic Intersections with Categories of Communication Ethics Inquiry ….....…
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