Professional Ethics

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Abstract

Modern professions are associations whose members are highly trained specialists with a service ideal that can be defined in ethical terms. Teachers promote human growth and development, medical doctors promote health, and lawyers promote justice. Engineering, business, research, and administration ethics are closely related to professional ethics in its narrow sense. Professionals are committed to serve their clients and the public. This means that they are trustworthy and virtuous agents. They respect the norms of confidentiality and informed consent. However, professions also have power in society. They have a high degree of autonomy and authority.

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Cited by (9)

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Timo Airaksinen (Ph.D., Turku) is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Helsinki. He has published widely on the philosophical problems of trust, social power, social capital, and professional ethics. He is an expert on the philosophy of Thomas Hobbes. His interests include the philosophy and ethics of technology and engineering, especially its risks and the questions of safety, security, and care. He has lectured to many professional associations and has trained numerous professions. He is a life member of Clare Hall, Cambridge. He is the vice president of International Berkeley Society and the Philosophical Society of Finland, and he is an honorary member of the Learned Society of Praxiology (Warsaw). He has also written on the Marquis de Sade and H. P. Lovecraft.

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