Socjologiczne aspekty etyki zawodowej: zarys problematyki

The purpose of the article is to collect and arrange considerations and views expressed so far about same aspects of professional ethics. Moreover, the article attempts to give a sociological view of these problems. At this stage the author makes same terminological remarks; for instance, she proposes to distinguish between the concepts of „professional ethics” and „professional morality”, which are often used alternatively. By professional ethics we mean a totality of principles of action formulated by certain individuals or groups, often in a form of tenets which should be obligatory for a profession. The author proposes to split the professional morality into two groups: a) the accepted professional morality which includes all moral norms and evaluations valid among people of a given profession with regard to the fulfilment of their professional functions, b) the represented professional morality, i.e. behaviours which are subject to moral evaluation and actually take place in a certain professional group. The author is primarily interested in the professional ethics and in the specific tenets formulated by professional groups and accepted by them. In this connection the following problems are emphasized: