Morality and the Professional Life

Book excerpt: For courses in Professional Ethics, Ethics and the Professions, Work and Society, and Business Ethics. Unique in perspective, this text offers a comprehensive values-based approach to professional ethics that is sensitive to the primary ethical issues of the workplace and that offers a positive way for dealing with these issues. It focuses on values important to all professionals and on how people do their work, not what type of work they do, and recognizes the strengths of various moral theories and the ways to harmonize as many moral values as possible. Part One provides a thorough introduction to moral concepts, theories, and forms of reasoning--for students with little or no background in ethics. Part Two discusses the values that are central to the moral life of professionals--integrity, respect for persons, justice, compassion, beneficence and nonmaleficence, and responsibility. A unified mix of text, readings (from literature, philosophy, and the professional ethics canon), exercises, cases for discussion, and discussion questions offer numerous opportunities for practice in interpreting values and applying them to the workplace.