Book Title: An Introduction to Professional Ethics: A Duty-Based Approach

Author: Theodore Gracyk

Book Description: This book is an introduction to ethical expectations and norms that hold for the consulting professions. The book is an introduction to the general topic, presupposing no prior knowledge of philosophy or ethics. The book adopts a duty-based point of view. The primary audience is pre-professionals. However, this is not a “how to” book. The approach is philosophical and fits into the field of applied ethics. The overall goal is to raise awareness of ethical challenges in professional life so that individuals have the background for self-reflection when they face these issues, either as professionals or as clients. The book explores the special ethical challenges that arise in professional life and concentrates on the traditional professions, that is, ones in which professional life centers on advising clients. The goal is to explain how some issues are common to many professions, such as the difficulty of upholding client autonomy in the face of the problems of competing interests, informed consent, and client confidentiality. The normative framework of the book builds from the assumption that most adults are autonomous individuals and deserve to be treated as such.