Weber's Ethic of Responsibility As a Framework for Professional Ethics

Max Weber coined the term ethic of responsibility in his lecture on Politics as a Vocation in 1919. The ethic of responsibility demands to take account of both the means and consequences of one's actions. Weber contrasts the ethic of responsibility with an ethic of "good attitude": "there is an abysmal contrast between conduct that follows the maxim of an ethic of ultimate ends--that is, in religious terms, 'The Christian does rightly and leaves the results with the Lord'--and conduct that follows the maxim of an ethic of responsibility, in which case one has to give an account of the foreseeable results of one's action." My paper discusses how Weber's ethic of responsibility can be turned into a framework for professional ethics. Key bridging concepts are (i) personal/professional autonomy and (ii) the expected degree of performance of professional work (quality, effects, efficiency, invested expertise...). I will explicate how an ethic of responsibility "takes account of precisely the average deficiencies of people" and can therefore be linked to empirical social psychology. Redefining Weber's ethic of responsibility as professional ethics clarifies some open conceptual issues both in Weber's approach (justification, evaluation) and in professional ethics (e.g., personal autonomy vs. professional standards).