ETHICS OF PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE

The importance of ethical regulation of professional practice is one of the most topical and discussed problems in modern ethics. The reason for it lies in the rapid development and institutionalization of a wide range of professions in which ethical questions make the very essence of professional practice, determine its characteristics and future perspectives of the professionals working in the respective fields. These questions are particularly topical for a range of relatively new professions connected with producing and functioning of information. Computerization and implementation of new information technologies lead to fundamental changes not only in technics and technology but also in professional work itself, to the extension of requirements applied to the professional image of the worker and to the genesis of a new way of thinking. The processes of ethical regulation of professional practice, of development and functioning of professional morality constitute the subject area of modern professional ethics. Professional ethics is a study of professional morality as a sum of ideals and values, ideas of the proper, ethical principles and norms of behavior which reflect the essence of the profession and adjust the relations that develop between workers during their work process and spring from the content of their professional practice. Philosophical nature of ethics allows it to make a moral assessment of different social facts and processes, first of all, of work and professional practice. The genesis of professional ethics is linked to the comprehension of problems of professional morality which was a result of the social division of labor and the attendant specialization and professional differentiation. However, the existence of various codices, rules, oaths and other systems of ethical regulation in different professions doesn't guarantee civilized professional ethical relations. Social and spiritual maturity of society, the level of development of democratic public institutions, the condition of law and moral conscience, patriotism and moral culture largely affect the manifestation of the ethical aspect of professional practice. One of the most important criteria of the ethical assessment of the quality of professional practice and of worker's personality is professionalism which implies not only the sum of certain professional knowledge and skills but also the moral image of the specialist, fulfillment of requirements of professional ethics, the ability to follow the common norms as well as professional moral norms in his professional practice.