ABOUT THIS EPISODE
Each “action” is a form of communication between self and world; it involves aspects of both perception and expression. In this sense, ethics is the study of the ‘best way to communicate’.
In connection with the nature of effective choice, the principles of effective expression and communication (all of which are involved in any real practice of ethics) are all ultimately defined in terms of the attainment of the basal motivations.
The process of communication is best facilitated when each participant freely, honestly, and fully grants to the other these three rights:.
1) the right to speak,
2) the right to be understood, and
3) the right to know that one has been understood.
Communication between people does not happen unless and until all three of these rights have been (at least implicitly) granted from each to the other. These rights of communication cannot be taken; they can only be given.
The essence of all communication acts are resolved into exactly and only two aspects: All statements (in all domains of communication) either define a representation or make a commitment (or both; no other roles or purposes are fundamental).
Representative statements reflect what is (an actuality).
Commitment statements reflect what could be (a potentiality).
A representation is a statement of perception, of actuality, which describes a quantity, a pattern, or a form.
A commitment is a statement of expression, of potentiality, which proscribes a quality, an essence, a feeling.
The event of forming a representation is the event of a change/transformation of actualities. It is a transformation or mapping of some aspect to the form of something in some world (as an actuality) to a form or structure within a domain of language (itself also an actuality).
The event of forming a commitment is the event of a change/transformation of potentialities. It is a change in the potentialities of the future expressions of the one making the commitment, and it is a change in the potentialities of the perceptions of the common future of the one receiving the commitment.
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