ABSTRACT
Why should a doctor or a social worker take time off from a busy life to consider what philosophers might say about their activities? Is there a place for philosophy or ‘ethics’ in the curriculum of a medical student, a nurse or a social worker? Had these questions been raised twenty years ago the answers might have been discouraging, for medical practitioners and social workers at that time saw little reason to consider subjects other than a narrow range of natural and social sciences. Moreover, if they had turned to the writings of contemporary philosophers they would have found little to encourage a professional interest, for philosophy tended then to be an inward-looking subject, much concerned with its own methodology and the purifying of itself from anything empirical or evaluative, and thought to have no bearing on substantive moral or political questions. Small wonder, then, that there was no incentive for the medical man to make room for philosophy alongside his biochemistry or the social worker to make room for philosophy alongside his psychology or sociology.
