Professional Ethics: An Empirical Test of the “Separatist Thesis”
通过对比医生和公民在七个伦理维度上的差异，检验了“专业人士与公民伦理不同”的分离论题，发现差异更多在程度而非本质，并讨论了如何融合两者以服务公共利益。
The appropriate contribution of professional judgment in a democratic society is an especially acute problem when decisions involve ethical choices. The “separatist thesis” is a theoretical proposition stating that professionals have distinctly different ethics than do citizens. Using a large sample of physicians and citizens, this study tested the separatist thesis on seven ethical dimensions. The findings indicate that these professionals do have separate ethics, but more in degree than in kind and with greater emphasis on individual ethics than on social or substantive ethics. Dialogical communities, reasoned ethical discourse, and practical strategies of ethical review communittees are necessary to blend professional and citizen ethics in the public interest. This research raises numerous questions for the empirical study of ethics in public administration.