Communication, Ethics and Relational Peace

Although social media often is trumpeted as an answer to the divisions bedeviling humankind, social media users also lament the violence enacted on one another through digital interactions. Is digital interaction capable of fulfilling the hope of human community? How ought persons communicate through social media? A baseline understanding of ethical communication is crucial for answering these questions. Martin Buber and Emmanuel Levinas’ philosophical analysis of relational peace lays the groundwork for an ethic of dialogic communication that may guide everyday interactions. As individuals navigate the call of unending responsibility for others, and the strength of existence that arises from a genuine encounter with others, the peace of human relationship becomes a hopeful possibility. The relational mode of asking questions operationalizes this peace. Whether face-to-face or digital, human communicators ought to subordinate their instrumental exchanges to an interpersonal approach of dialogic questions. Therefore, rather than seeing social media interactions as primarily the occasion for agreements or disagreements, one nurtures hope in human community by approaching interactions with a curiosity nurtured by the primordial call of the Other.