The Problem of Integrating Ethics - Essay Example

The modern times have however shown that there is no place for descriptive-normative gaps for the explanation of ethical naturalism and that this ethical naturalism has become a “naturalistic fallacy” far from the post-modern notions of blatant relativism. Therefore, I would agree with the proposition that there has been a necessary shift from Modernity to Post-Modern, towards a knowledge-based ethical discourse. To illustrate my argument, I would like to base my argument about the post-modern shift in ethical notions upon an example of the emerging notion of “expert professionalism” in sociological terms. Take the example of modern professional ethics.

Steven Brint (1994), a sociologist, has referred to the notion of professionalism and ethics as “social trustee professionalism,” which banks on the notions of the professionals being aware of their social contract with the larger society. For Brint (1994) the conclusion is that the past decades have seen “a key historical change” in a transition from what was initially “social trustee professionalism” to what is the modern-day “expert professionalism”. This view is shared by Sullivan (2004:28) who has termed this transition in professionalism as the loss of “the ethical-social values of professional identity”. Thus, to add to Brint’s analysis Sullivan (2004:32) has also spoken of the need to have professional education “restructured in ways that suffuse technical competence with civic awareness and purpose”.  Therefore, what has replaced the social trustee professionalism is an audit culture. According to Pels [(2000:148) as cited by Fertig (2003)], this audit culture is “...the shift, in anthropological ethics, from professionalism to audit [being] yet another instance of the swing of the liberal pendulum from a romantic primacy of the ethical to a utilitarian primacy of the economic”. This dichotomy has been further classified by Stronach et al [(2002:109) as cited by Fertig (2003)] as one between an 'economy of performance' and 'ecologies of practice’. What can also be seen is the new ‘market driven’ approach inherent focus within the open enrolment to schools through the public sector in the United Kingdom –. As Swailes [(2003:134) as cited by Fertig (2003)] has indicated “The effect of market changes was to make professionals (teachers) far more accountable to their client/customer markets in addition to greater scrutiny from an increasingly assertive management”. Therefore we can say that the modern notion of ethics in knowledge has become a “steadily increasing” corporate asset (which amongst others are patients, goodwill, and brand identity, etc) but also as “meaningful information; or the understanding, awareness, familiarity acquired through study, investigation, observation or experience moreover timing Zellner, 2000)”. (Psarras 2006). Thus such a perusal leaves us in a dilemma. Whether to blame postmodernism for a changing face of ethics or creating an abject lack thereof? In this vein, whereas I have cited only one example of how there is a move towards “discourse ethics” it can be seen that the Post-Modern era has manifested itself upon the ground realities of ethical concerns within all fields.