Beleaguered rulers : the public obligation of the professional / William F. May.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

May, William F.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Professional ethics.

Physical Description:

x, 286 pages ; 24 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Louisville, Ky. : Westminster John Knox Press, [2001]

Summary:

Professionals today wield an enormous public power. Collectively, their decisions affect the patient's plight, the client's fate, the student's future, the city's scape, the earth's sustainability, the worker's fair treatment, and the durability of institutions great and small. Yet professionals do not perceive themselves as power wielders. They feel beleaguered, marginal, insufficiently appreciated, often under siege. Thus they tend to obscure for themselves their obligations to the common good. This book explores eight professions as they struggle with their double identity -- as a means to a livelihood and as a "common calling in the spirit of public service." An interpretation of American culture emerges from its pages, as social critic William May opens up the ways in which each profession answers to something deep in the American spirit.

Contents:

Introduction: The Beleaguered Rulers 1

1 Money and the Professions: Medicine and the Law 27

2 Adversarialism in America and the Professions: The Law 53

3 The Engineer: From Nature's Adversary to Nature's Advocate? 89

4 Unacknowledged Public Rulers: Corporate Executives 129

5 Politics: The Despised Profession 161

Interlude: The Shaping of Public Happiness 183

6 Media Professionals (and Celebrities): Unordained Teaching Authorities 193

7 Ministers: Ordained to What Public Purpose? 213

8 Professors: Credentialed for What? 243.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0664223397

OCLC:

46640817