Just Another Day at the Office: The Ordinariness of Professional Ethics

This article examines some of the efforts that have been made to distinguish the norms and methods of professional ethics from those of "ordinary morality." The author finds unpersuasive arguments for distinctiveness based on the following claims: professionals provide services that are important to society; professionals are committed to some good larger than their self-interest; the professions are granted a degree of autonomy by the community; the nature of professional services requires skills and knowledge not possessed by the population at large. He concludes by drawing on role morality to demonstrate the continuity that exists among various types of ethics.