ABSTRACT
This chapter reconnects rhetoric and ethics and recovers a number of key terms from the Western rhetorical tradition—particularly, ethos and kairos—that are important for developing an integrated rhetorical/ethical network approach to professional communication. It describes an aspect of the rhetorical tradition that has often been neglected and subordinated—the tradition of sophistic and civic rhetoric, which offers people a more complex, integrated view of rhetoric and ethics useful for the digital age. Central to an integrated view of rhetoric and ethics is the rhetorical appeal of ethos. Sensitivity to kairos is key to a rhetorical understanding of communicative events, especially ethically problematic social media events, and is a vital component of the rhetorical frame for understanding professional communication in the digital age. Business ethics takes up the question of what is the right ethical action or behavior to take, while business communication takes up the question of what is effective or ineffective communication.
