Meaningful Work

Abstract

As usually understood, professional ethics consists of shared duties and episodic dilemmas: the responsibilities incumbent on all members of specific professions, together with the dilemmas that arise when these responsibilities conflict. This book challenges that “consensus paradigm”, rethinking professional ethics to include personal commitments and ideals, including many not mandatory for all members of a profession. Taking these personal commitments seriously expands professional ethics to include neglected issues about moral psychology, character and the virtues, self-fulfillment and betrayal, and the interplay of private and professional life.