MARTIN, Miko P.

2015 – 01836

Philo 120 WFV Prof. Isidro Valero

Roles, Professions and Moral Responsibility

By Dorothy Emmet

Dorothy Emmet begins by stating that everyone is within the bounds of law and

government. Within these bounds are a constellation of roles, which are not necessarily

coherent, for in fact their obligations can and do conflict. Dorothy Emmet acknowledges that

these role obligations are not harmonious, which makes it difficult to talk about ‘the social

system’ as though it were unitary and coherent.

A person will find himself in more than one constellation of roles, or in multiple roles. In

deciding what he ought to do, the person will likely take into account, even if only to reject,

notions of what is expected of him. When making such distinctions intuitively, social morality as

well as customs arise, whether it comes to the individual as obligation or as pressure to

conform. An existentialist may say that to accept a role is to evade the responsibility of seeing

that one is free not so to act, and of freely deciding what one wants to. Indeed, to take a role

can be to evade freedom by sheltering behind one’s social function. However, Dorothy Emmet

finds that the fact that different roles can press upon the same person makes it impossible to

think of him as the incumbent of a role. Rather, the person can be seen as an element in a

social structure produced by a reference group producing their own codes defining what is in

and what is out of their circles. Thus, the person takes on multiple roles to follow or reject these

codes, or notions.

Is an individual then just a collection of roles imposed by social morality? Dorothy

Emmet cites G. H. Mead as she quotes that ‘the expectations of others have thus become the

self-expectations of a self-steering person.’ This does not mean that an individual is nothing but
a collection of roles. Rather, an individual has his own style and character which exists and

develops through his relationships with others. Reflexive role-taking allows a person to see

himself through the attitudes of others and to enter imaginatively into their roles. And so, the

individual will always ask: ‘What will they say?’ As the individual answers the question, they may

not always have a precedent to follow but rather create their own precedent. As they create their

precedent, they assume what one ought to do, for in legislating oneself, one legislates for the

whole world.

Role morality represents this impersonal element in morality, where the individual

considers instead what one ought to do. In a role, an individual becomes a person of a certain

kind in a certain kind of relationship, detaching themselves from their personal idiosyncrasy.

Role morality serves as a directive for behavior in certain kinds of relationships, and it structured

by rules both explicit and implicit. The most explicit case of role morality, where all the rules

have been deliberately thought out, is the professional code. To define the profession, Dorothy

Emmet quotes Talcott Parsons, stating that ‘a profession is a cluster of occupational roles in

which the incumbents perform certain functions valued in society in general, and by these

activities, typically earn a living at a full-time job.’ In keeping with role morality, professionals

must operate under a standard of performance, as it emphasizes both professional competence

and professional integrity. To uphold this standard, older professions, like medicine and the law,

have formulated principles of professional conduct to guide their practitioners. This gives

morality a rational justification in terms of the requirements of the job.

At this point, Dorothy Emmet uses the obligation of confidential information as an

example of the role morality of professionals. Communications between lawyers and their

clients are privileged, for according to Knight-Bruce L. J., the pursuit of truth is not worth the

cost of prying and instilling fear and suspicion into a man’s communication with his legal

advisor. However, the relation between client and legal advisor is only one role relationship. The
lawyer’s role-set also comprises of his relationship to his colleagues and the lay public. The

lawyer has a duty to the court and to the cause of justice, so even though he is tasked with

giving the best interpretations on the interest of his client, he must not deceive the court by

making a statement he knows is false. Following such professional ethics is a means of

maintaining mutual trust and collaboration within the profession, which in turn lets professionals

do their jobs more effectively.

Dorothy Emmet continues to illustrate the uses of professional conduct. When

discussing pay, it is agreed that a professional can only receive payment for rendered services.

In most cases, a professional isn’t even allowed to sue for unpaid fees. According to Dorothy

Emmet, professional conduct is designed to make the desire for success, service to others, and

personal integrity to somehow ‘point in the same direction.’ She goes on to say that it isn’t the

deepest form of sacrifice, though it isn’t something that competitive societies would despise

either. Dorothy Emmet also discusses the threat of nepotism in the professional field. She

mentions that professional conduct, though sometimes restricting, can also serve as a

safeguard from pressures. Conflict of roles will often occur but in any case, moral judgement

must never remain unexercised.

Commentary

As a student of Psychology, I found that the concept of social morality was very similar

to the concepts in Social Psychology. As Social Psychology discusses how an individual

interacts with and creates judgements based on the social group he is in, it was inevitable that I

would eventually draw parallels upon reading Dorothy Emmet’s work. Dorothy Emmet discussed

the profession as the most explicit case of role morality. More implicit cases would have also

been appreciated, like the role of parent or panganay, which according to Social Psychology

can be very restricting, and even more so for mothers and eldest sisters.