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Towards a Genealogy of Professional Ethics
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The figure of the “professional” looms large in our contemporary society as an ideal for economic activity and socio-political inclusion, and even as a model for individual self-development. But how and when did this figure arise? And what has led professional activity to become such an essential part of our personal, social, moral, economic, and political life? While Max Weber and others have famously addressed these questions, this book reveals a more nuanced history of the concept of “profession” and “professional duty,” and offers the first comprehensive study of the discourse of professional ethics from a historical perspective. Italy, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom provide most of the rich corpus of philosophical, juridical, and theological sources discussed throughout the book in its longue durée journey from Ancient Rome to the present.
Towards a Genealogy of Professional Ethics
Author:
The figure of the “professional” looms large in our contemporary society as an ideal for economic activity and socio-political inclusion, and even as a model for individual self-development. But how and when did this figure arise? And what has led professional activity to become such an essential part of our personal, social, moral, economic, and political life? While Max Weber and others have famously addressed these questions, this book reveals a more nuanced history of the concept of “profession” and “professional duty,” and offers the first comprehensive study of the discourse of professional ethics from a historical perspective. Italy, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom provide most of the rich corpus of philosophical, juridical, and theological sources discussed throughout the book in its longue durée journey from Ancient Rome to the present.
Author:
Abstract
This chapter explores the interpretations given by various late medieval authors of the universal census which, according to the Gospel of Luke (2:1–2), was ordered by Augustus at the time of Jesus’s birth. After some remarks on the juridical institution of the census in ancient Rome, and on the theological translation of this institution developed by Christian thinkers such as Ambrose and Orosius, the use of this translation in certain medieval political and juridical texts to discuss the legitimacy and universality of imperial authority is examined. A number of sources, including the Quaestiones de iuris subtilitatibus, Ptolemy of Lucca’s De regimine principum, Dante’s De Monarchia, Bartolus of Saxoferratus’ comment on the lex ‘Hostes’, Ockham’s Breviloquium de principatu tyrannico, and the Somnium Viridarii, are considered. The aim of the chapter is twofold. It argues that the political value of Luke’s pericope should be reassessed, which requires that the passage be considered alongside other, nowadays better-known biblical references – such as Matthew 22:21, Rom 13:1–7, 1Pet 2:13–14, John 19:11 – that were so importantly used in discussions of both the extent of political submission and the relationship between spiritual and temporal authority from Christian perspectives. It also demonstrates that the census, and the invocation of a universal authority implicit to it, provides an excellent example of the overlapping and intertwining of theological, political, and juridical conceptualisations and practices in Western thought. On this ground, the historical understanding of the conceptualisation of ‘universal authority’, ‘empire’ and ‘emperor’ in the Western tradition can then be deepened.