Lecture 2

Professional ethics

1. Development of ethical regulation in

professions in Western culture.
2. Professional ethics at the contemporary stage
of socio-cultural process
3. Moral qualities of a person within professional
activities.
4. Ethical dimensions of professionalism.
1. Development of ethical regulation in professions
in Western culture

The first professional ethics – the

Hippocratic Oath
(V–IV BC).
In Ancient Rome – professional
codes of a teacher and a
lawyer.
???? Why were they developed
exactly at these professions?
Professional ethics were and are
developed at fields of human
activity where the object of
labor is a person in vulnerable
dimensions of her life (life and
death questions).
 The age of Antiquity is characterized by arrogant attitude to
physical labor. It was not an essential feature of a person and
was executed by slaves. Crafts and arts were also business for
foreigners, slaves and poor people of the ancient world. Some
exceptions were made for the work on earth. And a man was a
free person - a citizen whose appointment was political affairs,
public and military activities, that is, activities beyond material
production.
Middle Ages
 Work as punishment of men
after a fall
 An integral part of human
life.
 medieval classes - clergy,
warriors, peasants - were
defined precisely by the
types of activities they were
assigned from birth:
oratores, bellatores,
laboratores –
correspondingly «those who
pray», «those who fight»,
«those who work».
Since the XII century the term "profession"
has been coming in usage. From the very
beginning it had clear value content.

The concept “profession” accumulated such

meanings: the spirit of asceticism, high service,
direction on timeless and non-utilitarian values.
First professionals of the Middle Ages were:
lawyers, physicians, university teachers.
Common features for professionals of the Middle
Ages were:
university education, predominant affiliation with
the clergy, professional direction on interaction
with people (clients, patients, students).
In the professional life of the Middle Ages there
were important: firstly - ethical component of the
activity, in the second place - its importance for
society, and profitability was on the last place.
During that period, strong prejudgments against
trading activity and especially usury prevailed in
social consciousness.
 The main contribution to legitimization (from Latin word
legitimus - conformity) of professions , i.e. their public
recognition, was made in the XVII century due to
Reformation, exactly - ethical programs of that time
Puritan sects.
 German sociologist M. Weber in his book The Protestant
Ethics and the Spirit of Capitalism (1905) tried to find out
the measure of influence of the religious factor on the
formation of the capitalist spirit as a special spiritual mood
of the age. It was the epoch when the division of labor
actively took place and its ethical regulation appeared.
The Weber’s research was fundamental one for
understanding of the labor ethic of Puritanism since the
formation of capitalism in Europe.
 The ethical norms of Puritanism came from the idea of success
in earthly life as a sign of God's choice. Therefore, a person
had to take care of earth bound prosperity and to confirm her
belong to the chosen ones, working diligently in her place.
 Wealth was considered as a reward for professional service,
and enrichment had the religious and ethical mission.
Therefore, the attitude to the work activity was filled with the
religious content of vocation.
 As Puritan views were first spread among urban residents, the
bourgeoisie (French bourgeois – a citizen, representative of the
middle class) - artisans, craftsmen, traders – that is why urban
practical professions (in industry, business) then were
legitimized, and such qualities as hardworking, thrift, honesty
became the profound virtues.
To establish the idea of a profession, the
distinction between private life and the
public sphere was extremely important.
Private life – is the space of individual
self-realization, protected from
interference by outsiders, place where
an individual is a private person.
Public sphere – is free from the state
interference space of self-organization
interaction between citizens in solving
economic, political and social problems.

Professional activity is an integral part of

the public sphere.
2. Professional ethics at the contemporary
stage of socio-cultural process

 Professional ethics are developed in fields where

relations between professionals and between
professionals and clients are complicated and
difficult, where conflicts and contradictions are the
common place.
 Professional ethic is a system of ethical regulation
of a definite profession, within which ethical norms
and rules are elaborated. These norms and rules
create optimal relations between professionals in the
fields of their interactions with consumers / clients.
During the last century, the role of ethical regulation increased
significantly in professions connected with specific social functions. It
means professional activity in management, medicine, law, civil
service, sports, engineering. In each of these areas, actualization of
professional ethics are connected with events that have
demonstrated the increase of social risks that profession has given
for the life of an individual and society in general. Also public
expectations concerned ethical regulation of professional activity.
Professional ethics are developed in all fields where professional
activities are connected with clients, consumers directly or indirectly,
and the results of professional activity can actually or potentially do
harm consumers or other members of society.
The objectives of professional ethics are to eliminate the tensions
between general humanistic values and professional values, and the
contradictions between the universal moral requirements and the
requirements to a person as an employee who must follow
professional obligations.
 Professional ethics are systems of normativity regulation within
specific professions, in which professionals comprehend the
need in ethical tools.
 As applied technologies are implemented (development of
codes of ethics, counseling, expertise) professional ethics
enter the space of applied ethics.
 Generalized term "professional ethics" is a meta-disciplinary
area of research of the phenomenon of the profession, analysis
of the mission of a professional as an άctor.
3. Moral qualities of a person within
professional activities

 Professional activity is socially important labor activity of

a person, in the process of which social goods are created
with the help of special knowledge, practical skills and
experience. Professional activity is distinguished from
amateurism (lat. amo – love) - amateurishness, non-
professional activity.
 Labor activity becomes professional activity when a person:
- has a special education,
- socially recognized belonging to a definite profession,
- gets salary for one’s work,
- has an official confirmation of qualification.
Profession

- to follow high moral standards,

- altruistic orientation,
- mandatory education
- mandatory post-university trainings
- availability of professional association
- relative independence
- social recognition
Horn R.C. On Professions, Professionals, and
Professional Ethics (1978)
 Profession allows a person to reveal oneself, one’s
potential in a way to integrate personal and social good.
Such high mission in profession is reflected in a
language. Linguists say that in German “Beruf” means
vocation and specialization, in English “profession”
means confession.
 Comprehending one’s vocation in professional activity,
the individual strives for future professional development.
In a process of professional activity the individual asserts
oneself as a unique personality. Honest labor in a
profession promotes strictness to oneself and one’s
professional level and competence.
Moral content of a profession consists of personally
directed and socially meaningful values, which are
called professional values.

 Responsibility is a mechanism of moral

consciousness that transforms abstract duty in
personal definite obligation.
 Responsibility directs a person on proper decision
making.
 There are prospective and retrospective
responsibility.
Prospective responsibility is connected with obligation
to care about somebody or something before or
during our acting.
Retrospective responsibility is represented in moral
sanctions after the act was done, as conscience
reproach, moral blame.
 Trust is an attitude to the deeds of other persons,
that are based on their honesty, loyalty, integrity.
 American political scholar Francis Fukuyama
researched trust as a component of professional
activity in different societies (US, German, Italian).
He considered trust as an expectation of honest,
predictable behavior according to generally adopted
in social or professional environment norms.
Organizations with high level of trust are more
successful than organizations with lower level of
trust.
Justice is the concept of moral fairness, a mechanism of regulation of
human cooperation in prospects of conquered desires, interests and
obligations. In professional activity it regulates the purpose and aim of
mutual activity of personnel.
Mutual understanding – relations between people that are shaped in
the process of collaboration based on common comprehension of
intellectual and ethical ideas.
Law-abiding– in ethics it is the value to follow accepted norms,
principles and values, that allows to introduce them in professional
activity.
Professional honor – it is an attitude of a person to oneself and one’s
position in a society in prospects of social recognition of a profession
in the life of a society. Professional honor, professional dignity means
the estimation of one’s importance in the life of a society.
Permanent practice of professional virtues by a
person leads to shaping of appropriate way of life.

 Profession defines our personal moral qualities, which reflect

peculiarities of ethical content of a profession. Such proper
professional qualities are: doctor’s duty, responsibility of a
scientist, pedagogical delicacy.
 In professions with regular working hours (from 9 am till 6pm)
the life speed is subordinated to the division of the day on work
and leisure: follow professional rules during the working time
and free oneself from their pressure in rest of the day.
 Another way of life is formed in professions without fixed
working hours (teachers, scholars, scientists). The necessity to
follow norms and rules of professional activity in irregular
working hours leads to penetration of professional qualities to
all spheres of human life.
 4. Ethical dimensions of
professionalism

 American sociologist Daniel Bell named our society as

postindustrial society, stressing transformations in profound
working activity, social structure and the type resources used.
 Industrial economy does not disappear, but postindustrial world
is concentrated on principally other, non-industrial components
of economic development. Science and technologies based on
science, information and services become the leading sectors
of postindustrial economy (services: finance, trade, transport,
healthcare, science, education, management, show business
etc). The more developed the services sector is so less
intensive role of unqualified workers is, and the work of
professionals is in charge.
 Postindustrial society is the set of principles of social
organization of life, which are based on high-technology,
production of information and broadening
the services sector.
 Thus, experts, high level professionals are integral part of
the contemporary society. Supremacy of intellectuals in
post-industrial society is called meritocracy.
 Meritocracy (from Lat. meritos – worthy + Gr. kratos –
power) – power of worthy people, the principle of
management, according to which leadership positions are
taken by professionals with special education and
practical skills.
 Neither social origins nor financial prosperity, but
professional competence is crucial for the obtaining of the
position.
 Necessity in professionalism of the personnel leads
to decreasing of ethical pathos of profession as
vocation.
 The accentuation of functionalism in professional
activity provokes technologization of the profession,
which, does not mean its simplification.
 Technologization of professionalism is the
specification of the mission of the profession when a
professional makes moral choice through analytical,
informational, organizational procedures in her work
and its evaluation.
Non-stop education –
permanent trainings during
all professional activity
becomes the integral part
in the contemporary world.
Basic professional
education, regular trainings
and corporate culture
shape the system of
entering in a profession for
a person and make her
creative development at
the sphere of profession
possible.
 New professionalism
is a focused
implementation of
ethics in professional
activity, the formation of
harmonious human
relations in the working
team, basing on the
creative development of
a person and a society