Abstract
This essay is an attempt to answer the question “How can phenomenology contribute to the renovation of the professional practices in a contemporary society?” Several answers have been suggested in recent decades. In the search for adequate methods, the focus has now shifted from communication to reflection and ethics, but much remains to be done in the domain of institutional development, especially in renewed professional cultures and the design of strategies of management compatible with goal-oriented practices.
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Notes
- 1.
I am grateful to Lester Embree, who encouraged me to research phenomenologically inspired professional ethics and, as president of CARP, sponsored the very first meeting of ProEtica seminar. This text is one of the results of a research conducted in the framework of the collective research grant CNCSIS 1356 “Normative Strategies and Practices in Romania Before and After EU Accession” (2006–2008) (Director: Ion Copoeru).
Many thanks to Lester Embree and Oana Presecan for polishing this text.
- 2.
ProEtica has worked with NGOs and activists to foster intra- and inter-professional communication, as well as public discussion and debate. Its specialists provided logistical and theoretical assistance to those professional organizations seeking to increase the participation of members in shaping the policies in their field of activity and in the political life of Romania. ProEtica primarily promotes training to raise awareness and strengthen participation in the self-governance of professions. The research undertaken in this group covers the domain of ethics in professions and is oriented toward the advancement of policies and enhancing the quality of practices in various professional fields. It integrates skills and tools across various academic disciplines, like ethics, organizational psychology, public administration, law, history and so forth, with professional fields.
- 3.
See Ion Copoeru, “A Schutzian Perspective on the Phenomenology of Law in the Context of Positivistic Practices,” Human Studies (2008) 32:269–277.
- 4.
Arthur Isak Applbaum, Ethics for Adversaries: The Morality of Roles in Public and Professional Life, accessed at http://ebooks.ebookmall.com/ebook/111544-ebook.htm on 30 December 2008, Chapter 3 on 30 December 2008.
- 5.
Paul Ricoeur, Le Juste 2, Paris: Editions Esprit, 2001, pp. 55–68.
- 6.
Idem., p. 43.
- 7.
Ibid.
- 8.
We can notice in the background that the researcher must be able also to accomplish a shift of his or her point of view and adapt his or herself to the diverse “reality” of professional behaviors and of their specific modes of justification.
- 9.
Op. cit., p. 43.
- 10.
“Les trois niveaux du jugement médical,” in op. cit., pp. 227–244.
- 11.
“La prise de décision dans l’acte médical et dans l’acte judiciaire,” in op. cit., pp. 245–256.
- 12.
“Sous le vocable du jugement est désignée à la fois une assertion caractéristique de la pratique considérée, ici la prescription médicale, et la prise de position exercée par les protagonistes, soignants d’un côté, patients de l’autre.” (P. Ricœur, Le Juste 2, pp. 42–43)
- 13.
Like, for example, determinative or reflective judgments, to speak in Kantian terms, or various argumentative forms adapted to the object or the domain of application, if we prefer Toulmin’s theory of argumentation or Perlman’s “new rhetoric.”
- 14.
“The necessities of physical life require the handling of physical things and the overcoming of obstacles in order to comply with the basic requirements of life. The interest in life as task to be performed builds up the system of relevances that selects the objects of the world in the world within my reach. As we have seen, it is the center of reality of the world of working; it corresponds to the full-awakeness of the practical attitude. In the world within my reach those objects become important that are useful or dangerous or otherwise relevant to my basic experiences.” Realities from Daily Life to Theoretical Contemplation, in Alfred Schutz, Collected Papers, vol. IV, H. Wagner, G. Psathas, & F. Kersten (Eds.), Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1996, p. 45.
- 15.
Alfred, Schutz, Parsons’ Theory of Social Action: A Critical Review by Alfred Schutz, in Richard Grathoff (Ed.), The Theory of Social Action: The Correspondence of Alfred Schutz and Talcott Parsons, Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1978, p. 35.
- 16.
Ibid.
- 17.
Alfred Schutz, “Then Well-Informed Citizen: An Essay on the Social Distribution of Knowledge,” in Alfred Schutz, Collected Papers, vol. II, Studies in Social Theory, A. Brodersen (Ed.), The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1964, p. 121 (my italics).
- 18.
About the sense that Schutz gave to Max Weber’s neutrality value thesis, see Michael Barber, “If only to be heard: Value-Freedom and Ethics in Alfred Schutz’s Economic and Political Writings,” in Explorations of the Life-World: Continuing Dialogues with Alfred Schutz, Series: Contributions To Phenomenology, vol. 53, Endress, Martin, Psathas, George, & Nasu, Hisashi (Eds.), Dordrecht: Springer, 2005. Barber insisted on the fact that “while not sacrificing value-freedom within economic science, nevertheless opens up greater possibilities for a politico-ethical critique of the economic sphere from without.” (p. 173).
- 19.
Ibid.
- 20.
See Michael Barber, The Participating Citizen. A Biography of Alfred Schutz, Albany: State University of New-York Press, 2004.
- 21.
Idem., p. XI.
- 22.
Alfred Schutz, “Basic Concepts and Methods of the Social Sciences,” in Alfred Schutz, Collected Papers, vol. IV, H. Wagner, G. Psathas, & F. Kersten (Eds.), Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1996, p. 122.
- 23.
Ibidem. In my reading of this sentence I would stress upon the term “goal”. This practical positivism evacuates in fact any reference to a goal and cuts off what Ricoeur calls the teleological level of the reasoning.
- 24.
Ibidem.
- 25.
Ibidem.
- 26.
Its roots can be found in his “methodology.” As Lester Embree notices, “if Schutz conceived of his postulates as rules, he could also have expressed them as norms, or even imperatives. Interestingly, however, he rarely does so.” (Lester Embree, “Economics in the Context of Alfred Schutz’s Theory of Science,” to be published in Schutzian Research, vol. I, Dordrecht: Springer, 2008. I am grateful to the author for allowing me to quote from this manuscript.
- 27.
Alfred Schutz, “The Well-informed Citizen. An Essay on the Social Distribution of Knowledge in Alfred Schutz, Collected Papers, vol. II, Studies in Social Theory, A. Brodersen (Ed.), The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1964, p. 128.
- 28.
Idem, pp. 134–135.
- 29.
Michael Barber, The Participating Citizen. A Biography of Alfred Schutz, Albany: State University of New-York Press, 2004, p. XII (my italics).
- 30.
Alfred Schutz, Memorandum to Doctor Harold Lasswell, June 7, 1956, in Schutzian Social Science, Lester Embree (Ed.), Ch. 12. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1999, p. 292.
- 31.
Ibid.
- 32.
Ibid.
- 33.
Idem. p. 293.
- 34.
Idem. p. 297.
- 35.
Michael Barber, loc. cit.
- 36.
“Coordinates of the Magistrate’s Ethical Profile. New Exigencies of the Judge’s Moral Evaluation”, undertaken by the ProEtica seminar (Ion Copoeru, Ungvari-Zrinyi Imre and Mihaela Frunza) within the Philosophy Department of the Babeş-Bolyai University Cluj-Napoca, to which Emanuel Sociaciu from the Center of Applied Ethics of the University of Bucharest also joined. It took place during February – September 2006 and it was approved by the Superior Council of Magistracy (Decision 328 of 24 August 2005).
- 37.
Accordingly, a change in the researcher’s role (philosopher or, in general, the intellectual) is required. The task of implementing already drafted norms – as the Superior Council of Magistracy intended – seemed from the beginning incompatible with the idea of reflective transformation (“from the inside”) of the collective practices and of the individual behavior of magistrates. Confronted with professionals and having to cope with the in-place institutional “logic,” the philosopher has to learn and (to) accept the art of compromise, but he also has (also) to keep his eyes on the final goal. The initial design of the project, as well as its development, were originally intended to follow what had already been done with respect to the code of the profession in Romania.
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Copoeru, I. (2010). The Participating Professional. In: Nenon, T., Blosser, P. (eds) Advancing Phenomenology. Contributions To Phenomenology, vol 62. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-9286-1_18
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