Virtue-based Approaches to Professional Ethics: a Plea for More Rigorous Use of Empirical Science

Virtue-based Approaches to Professional Ethics: a Plea for More Rigorous Use of Empirical Science

Until recently, the method of professional ethics has been largely principle-based. But the failure of this approach to take into sufficient account the character of professionals has led to a revival of virtue ethics. The kind of professional virtue ethics that I am concerned with in this paper is...

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Journal Title: Ethic@: An International Journal for Moral Philosophy
Author: Georg Spielthenner
Traslated keyword:
Ethics; Empirical Ethics; Professional Ethics; Professional Virtues; Science-based Ethics; Teleological Virtue Theory; Virtue Ethics
Language: Undetermined
Get full text: https://periodicos.ufsc.br/index.php/ethic/article/view/1677-2954.2017v16n1p15
Resource type: Journal Article
Source: Ethic@: An International Journal for Moral Philosophy; Vol 16, No 1 (Year 2017).
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5007/1677-2954.2017v16n1p15
Publisher: Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina
Usage rights: Reconocimiento - NoComercial - SinObraDerivada (by-nc-nd)
Categories: Social Sciences/Humanities --> Ethics
Abstract: Until recently, the method of professional ethics has been largely principle-based. But the failure of this approach to take into sufficient account the character of professionals has led to a revival of virtue ethics. The kind of professional virtue ethics that I am concerned with in this paper is teleological in that it relates the virtues of a profession to the ends of this profession. My aim is to show how empirical research can (in addition to philosophical inquiry) be used to develop virtue-based accounts of professional ethics, and that such empirically well-informed approaches are more convincing than traditional kinds of professional virtue ethics. The paper is divided into four sections. In the first, I outline the structure of a teleological approach to virtue ethics. In Section 2, I show that empirical research can play an essential role in professional ethics by emphasizing the difference between conceptual and empirical matters. Section 3 demonstrates the relevance of virtues in professional life; and the last section is concerned with some meta-ethical issues that are raised by a teleological account of professional virtues.

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