Virtues And Values In Professional Ethics
April 5 • 5:30 – 7:00 p.m.
In-Person Rose Hill: Hughes Hall – Hughes 307
Virtual Zoom is available for virtual attendees
Amalia Amaya Navarro is British Academy Global Professor at Edinburgh Law School and Research Fellow at the Institute for Philosophical Research at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. She works primarily in the area of philosophy of law, although she also is interested in some issues pertaining to moral and political theory. She is the author of The Tapestry of Reason: An Inquiry into the Nature of Coherence and its Role in Legal Argument (2015). Amaya Navarro is now working on a book manuscript that develops a virtue approach to legal reasoning and judicial ethics. In addition, she is engaged in research on three themes: the role of exemplarity in legal and political culture, fraternity as a legal and political ideal, and ambivalence in legal decision-making.
Abstract: Reflection on professional values and principles has taken center stage in contemporary discussions on professional ethics. In this paper, Professor Amaya Navarro argues that a fullfledged ethics of the professions needs to incorporate virtues as a core element within the theory. First, she provides some reasons in support of giving virtue—alongside values and principles—a central role in the ethics of the professions. Virtues, she argues, are not reducible to values, which are related in complex ways. Second, she develops a skill model of professional virtue, with a focus on the creative professions, and examines some of the key character traits that are needed to excel in these professions. Last, she will point out some advantages of the virtue approach to professional ethics. The paper concludes by suggesting some implications of this approach for professional education and institutional design.
