ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how 'respect for persons' can legitimately become a professional principle and examines some of the implications of a practice based on respect for persons. 'Respect for persons' is a prerequisite of morality and the property of all persons. In casework and social work literature, 'respect for persons' is expressed in the principles of casework: individualisation, client self-determination, acceptance, effective communication of feeling and confidentiality. The chapter proposes a rationale for adapting respect for persons as a key-concept in the professional social work approach to personal and interpersonal problems. While the systems approach to social work may broaden the horizons of the practitioner, encouraging him to see the other person's problem in a wide social framework, it seems alien to the traditional principles of social work. Social work is doing philosophy in terms of the practical syllogism in which the last line is not words, but activity.
