Promises and limits of discourse ethics in communicative interactions

Communication ethics is concerned with the ways in which intersubjective relationships are constructed. It highlights the tensions among determinations that rule intersubjective contacts and the constant reformulation of meaning frames and forms of language that de ne both interlocution and its context. This text outlines the similarities and differences between two con icting approaches concerning the use of everyday language as a particularly privileged way of social interaction. We shall rst consider the Habermasian notion of an ideal situationof communication, then shifting to the problems concerning the power and interests encapsulated in any communicative exchange, following the perspective of Bourdieu. It is worth mentioning that an ethics of com- munication that intends to evaluate the role played by interests and language in the practical relationship between subjects should approach conditions under which, through a discursive interaction in the public scope, individuals could reach an understanding regarding their interests and needs.