Virtue Ethics and Professional Roles

Abstract

The virtue ethics approach to professional morality is most fully developed by Justin Oakley and Dean Cocking in Virtue Ethics and Professional Roles. Using the Aristotelian account of virtue ethics — an account that places central importance on the exercise of reflective moral agency1 — this approach provides a useful way of delineating professional responsibilities and professional morality. Aristotelian virtue ethics is particularly well suited to professional ethics because it ties virtuous behaviour to the concept of good functioning in particular roles. Oakley and Cocking claim that ‘virtue ethics’ teleological approach to right action in terms of good functioning relative to appropriate ends makes it especially well placed to capture the special roles and sensitivities of particular professions’.2 KeywordsVirtue EthicProfessional EthicProfessional RolePractical WisdomRegulative IdealThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.