The Professions: Public Interest and Common Good

Abstract

T his is the age of the professional. As knowledge becomes more specialized and technology more complex, well-established professions, like medicine and law, acquire new power. The same is true of fields such as corporate management, journalism, social work, and administration-all of which have entered the ranks of the professions in the twentieth century. The growth of professional power should carry with it a stronger sense of ethical responsibility. Professional ethics should express the moral bond linking the professions, the individuals they serve, and the society as a whole. The professions affect the interests and well-being of individuals, and they also play a vital role in the pursuit of the and the good. This means that discussions of professional ethics should have a dual focus. They should focus on the private duties of the professions-ethical obligations to clients and to particular organizations or groups. And they should focus as well on the duties of the professions-the obligations and responsibilities owed in service to the as a whole. In professional ethics today most of the emphasis falls on private duties. Private duties seem concrete and relatively easy to define. They are rooted in the tangible interests and rights of specific individuals. Public duties, by contrast, seem abstract. The harm done to society or to the is much harder to identify than the harm done to specific individuals by unethical professional conduct. Notions such as the public interest and the common good are difficult to define, and the professions often appeal to them in self-serving ways. We need to revitalize these notions in order to give the duties of the professions the attention they deserve.