“An Eye for Facts and a Sense of Values”: Social Work as Moral Philosophy? Thursday, March 27, 2008 7:30 - 9:30 pm
Location: 2203 Dunton Tower, Carleton University
Speaker: Sarah Banks, Professor in the School of Applied Social Sciences at Durham University, UK
Sarah Banks has a background in community development and worked in the voluntary sector and local authority social services before joining Durham University. Her degrees are in philosophy, social history, and social work. Her research interests include professional ethics, community development, and work with young people.
She initiated the European Social Ethics Project that comprises a group of academics from various countries undertaking research and curriculum development work on the theme of teaching practical ethics for the social professions. She has been involved in developing and revising codes of ethics for several national and international bodies, including the National Youth Agency and International Federation of Social Workers.
She is currently working on two books (with colleagues from other institutions): Critical Community Practice and Professional Ethics in Health and Social Welfare: A Virtue-based Approach. She is co-editor of a new international journal, Ethics and Social Welfare.
Abstract: This talk will explore aspects of what might be the mutually beneficial relationship between social work and moral philosophy. The quotation in the title is taken from a lecture by Bernard Bosanquet, a late nineteenth century idealist philosopher and social reformer. Bosanquet wrote prolifically on highly abstract philosophical themes, while also writing about and being deeply involved with the development of early social casework. While some more recent commentators have described social work as “practical philosophy”, “doing philosophy” or “moral philosophising”, Bosanquet’s claim was more modest: that philosophy and social work share a similar orientation and set of skills insofar as they both require “an eye for facts and a sense of values”. In this talk we will explore what this means by examining one of the meeting points between social work and moral philosophy, namely professional ethics. Often equated with codes of ethics, rule-following, analysis of difficult cases, and the development of ethical decision-making models, we will examine a range of alternative approaches to the study and practice of professional ethics in social work, drawing on insights from moral philosophy and professional practice.
