Philosophy in PR?

When I found out we were going to be learning about ethical philosophies, famous theories and philosophers I was quite confused! Philosophy in PR? Who would have thought? I had never studied philosophy before so I was very intrigued to start this ethics unit.

I discovered there are philosophical reasons why each of us judges a certain way. Many theories support ethical philosophy, the main one being meta ethics and normative ethics. To simply put it, meta ethics is the study of fundamental properties of ethical statements attitudes and judgement. However, normative ethics is a branch of philosophy that tries to define how we should act and what it means to be good.

Another theory discussed was the 3 basic approaches. This theory suggests that there are 3 basic forms of ethical philosophy including non cognitive, relativists and absolutists. Non cognitive states that ethics is a matter of preferences and that it is subjective and can't be proven. Relativists believe each person must decide what is right and wrong given the circumstance and generalisation of what is right and wrong cannot occur as no two situations are the same. Lastly, absolutists feel that there is always a right and wrong and it is not dependant on the situation or person. There have been numerous debates and "conflicts" over these 3 basic theories and which one is "correct". Personally, I would say the relativists approach resonates with me the most as I think the way one should act is dependant on the circumstance they are in. What about you? Which one do you feel suits your own ethical philosophies best?

We then moved onto The Greeks. Studying ancient philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle was really interesting to me. I particularly liked seeing how classical philosophy collided with messianic monotheism and learning about the deontological approach which states that what is right and wrong is on a universal basis and should be followed no matter what.

What I wanted to know was how these theories and philosophy in general linked to PR and how I could apply it in my future role in the PR industry? I came to realise that as a communicator, I may have to persuade an organisation why a certain decision or a particular course of action is good and the right thing to do. If I have a strong understanding of ethics I can justify my decision and persuade the organisation with confidence.

What other reasons are ethics useful in PR? Feel free to comment down below so we can start a discussion on this topic.

Thanks for reading!