Volume 4, Issue 2, 2004
Professionalism, Passion and Doubt
Bob Brecher
Pages 3-8
Against Professional Ethics
I argue that the current popularity of 'ethics' in general, and the extension of 'professional ethics in particular, masks an increasingly unethical culture. Furthermore, attempts to codify ethics encourage a rule-governed approach, thus misunderstanding the nature of ethical practice and - whether or not inadvertently - serving to protect the professions from ethical considerations rather than the opposite.