ABSTRACT
This chapter explains what people mean by interpersonal communication and explores its foundation. Interpersonal communication has developed into a field within the discipline of communication studies. This field studies how communication occurs in situations in which one person talks with another person. Ethical dialogue in interpersonal communication is not tied to personal agenda and strategic ends but rather exhibits a give-and-take quality. The principles of dialogical ethics require that interpersonal communication take place in truth. Words people use with the other person are designed not to conceal, but to reveal. In view of dialogical ethics as a foundation for interpersonal communication, people turn to an application of these principles by considering how people handle interpersonal conflict. An examination of ethical behavior in interpersonal communication does not only have a relational dimension, but a character dimension as well.
