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Ethics in Public Service: A Historical Perspective

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance

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Synonyms

Autonomy; Civic virtue; Compliance; Economy; Effectiveness; Efficiency; Equity; Ethics; Integrity; Justice; Merit; Patriotism; Piety; Professionalism; Prudence; Public or general-interest; Rationality; Social responsibility; Universality and heroism; Utility; Values

Definition

Ethics, frequently equated with piety and civic virtue or even with utility and prudence; defined by Aristotle as “something manifested in making personal choices.”

Some Further Definitions

In some of his discourses timed around the death of Socrates – Phaedo, Crito, and the Apology come to mind in this connection – Plato brings the idea of the soulto bear on the discussion of right conduct, ethics, and virtue. Defined in these discourses as the best part of our self, this idea of “soul,” related to the concept of immortality, was destined to prove catalytic of many transformative changes in the evolution of European thought, all through the ages. Specifically, the belief that all humans, individual...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. John Jay College, CUNY, New York, NY, USA

    Demetrios Argyriades

Authors
  1. Demetrios Argyriades
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Demetrios Argyriades .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, Florida, USA

    Ali Farazmand

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© 2016 Springer International Publishing AG

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Argyriades, D. (2016). Ethics in Public Service: A Historical Perspective. In: Farazmand, A. (eds) Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_2506-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_2506-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-31816-5

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