Several issues ago, PERSPECTIVES' focus was on the relationship between professional education and practice. At that time a nurse, a woman engineer and an architect reflected on their experiences of being "professionalized."

In this issue we present the introspective narratives and judgments of a well-known Chicago doctor, of an out-of-state attorney and of a professional philosopher.

My reasons for devoting two issues to this topic are first of all that there is an intrinsic dramatic: and human interest in it. Secondly, the moral life demands reflective self-examination and that activity, carried out by these men and women in their professional "personae", offers us clues to some areas of particular ethical vulnerability within each profession. Finally each author sketches a particular sort of professional idealism that was an integral part of his or her training but which confrontation with practice (with "the real world" as one writes) has tarnished or at least diminished.

I invite your speculation as to whether professional education and training should, therefore, become more "realistic" or whether on the contrary the professional emphasis on public service and moral idealism should be augmented and include some instruction in how to make these an integral part of practice.