ABSTRACT
In discussing ethics and professionalism, our first task is to clarify the meaning of “professional” ethics and to see how this term differs from ethics in general. To assist the reader in doing this, a chart is provided to locate the study of professional ethics within the broader context of ethical inquiry. Before examining the chart, a word of caution is necessary. Graphic presentations have the great advantage of making obscure matters clearer, but at times they have the disadvantage of making some things too clear. Winston Churchill is said to have once remarked that the French have a way of making things clearer than God ever intended them to be. So it is with charts, graphs, and tables. There is something pretentious, if not absurd, about trying to fit the serious thought of milennia into a few lines on a chart. Nevertheless, we have before us the difficult task of discussing professional ethics in public organizations and a quick view of ethics in general might be of help. With this caveat in mind, the reader’s attention is invited to Fig. 1. Ethics: an overview. https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9781003065104/a4b59dd9-3143-44ad-ae3a-d56cfcdf13b0/content/fig7_1.tif"/>
