The Role of Discretion in Professional Practice

Abstract

Various scholars of ethics and economics conduct research on the best modes of decision making which guarantee good outcome and moral behaviour of the individuals involved. Either of the modes considered, rules with regulations or discretion and judgment, find applicability in diversified professional circumstances. The paper investigates how discretion can be used in professional activity by using the Aristotelic-Thomistic framework. Results indicate that such a framework can be used by engineers in their working environments and by other working professionals with the main proposition that only in discretionary decision making is the person able to take full responsibility for the outcomes and to premeditate their moral worth in conscience before resolving to commit the act itself.

Keywords

• personalistic professionalism in engineering ethics
• discretion
• human decision making
• conscience
• truth