Bohm’s Dialogue and Reciprocal Trust

Mariselda Tessarolo

University of Padua

E-mail: Mariselda.tessarolo@unipd.it

rhetoric journalAbstract: The intention to communicate builds the architecture of inter­subjectivity that involves the staging of the individualistic world of the subject. The mutual intentionality and awareness are present in the commu­nication process in which the communicative intention of the broad­caster becomes mutual and shared knowledge. Trust is hardly declared; it is usually learned from the regularity of the communicative exchange actions that take place in the meetings. It can be distinguished between personal commitments and anonymous commitments. The former concern relation­ships of trust supported by or expressed in social ties established in cir­cumstances of coexistence. The assumption of trust is also generalized for meetings with strangers in public places and also for virtual meetings on social networks. The predominant situation of modernity is the pluralist position: man as a social animal prefers to share agreement more than dis­agreement. Pluralism undermines false assurances in favour of uniform but also reasoned social consensus. We will focus on dialogue because trust is important in meeting people who have to decide and make agreements. Therefore, taking into account the generalization of the fiduciary relation­ship in dialogue, two ‘theories’ will be considered: that of Bohm (On dialogue) and that of Moscovici and Doise (on Consent and dissent). Dialogue, especially in business meetings, must be identified with the ‘politics of dialogue’. Trust is assumed in every initial meeting in which a perception of “established trustworthiness” is implemented. We are in an era of democracy in which the need for choice and dialogue is strong: in Bohm’s dialogue there are rules that serve to move forward by listening, discussing, deciding nothing, suspending judgment and for this very reason new ideas and hypotheses have always the chance to emerge.

Keywords: mutual trust, conflicting individualism, constitutive trust­worthi­ness, generalized assumption of trust.

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