Professional ethics

Professional ethics encompass the personal, organizational and corporate standards of behavior expected of professionals.

The term professionalism originally applied to vows of a religious order. In the year 1675, the term was secularized and was applied to the three learned professions: Divinity, Law, and Medical. The term professionalism was also used for the military profession around this same time.

Professionals and those working in acknowledged professions, exercise specialist knowledge and skill. How the use of this knowledge should be governed when providing a service to the public can be considered a moral issue and is termed professional ethics.

Professionals are capable of making judgments, applying their skills and reaching informed decisions in situations that the general public cannot because they have not received the relevant training. One of the earliest examples of professional ethics is the Hippocratic oath to which medical doctors still adhere to this day.

Professional Ethics (journal)

Professional Ethics: A Multidisciplinary Journal was a peer-reviewed academic journal that examined ethical issues in the context of the practice of a profession. Established in 1992, the journal published original research on ethics issues in accounting, business, engineering, sports, the military, and other fields. Notable contributors include Carol G. Gould, R. M. Hare, and Daryl Koehn. The journal published special issues in cooperation with professional organizations in several countries, including the Australian Association for Professional and Applied Ethics, Canadian Society for the Study of Practical Ethics, International Association for the Philosophy of Sport, International Colloquium on Military Obedience, Maguire Center for Ethics and Public Responsibility, and the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics. Professional Ethics was published at the Center for Applied Ethics at the University of Florida until 2003. Members of the Society for Ethics Across the Curriculum have online access to all issues of this journal as a benefit of membership.