Ethics and the Chimera of Professionalism: The Historical Context of an Oxymoronic Relationship

Abstract

Like the Chimera of Greek mythology—an imaginary monster compounded of incongruous parts—professionalism has assimilated ethics as a part of its ordinary definition. In this paper, the relationship between professionalism and ethics is examined in historical context, which suggests the association of the two occurred during and just after the Progressive Era. It was during this period of time that technical rationality overwhelmed earlier understandings of professionalism—ones more conducive to moral reasoning. This paper addresses the prospects for a new professionalism in our present modern historical circumstances.