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Medvedeva ethics of social work. Ethical foundations of social work

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Guslova M.N. Theory and methodology of social work (Document)

Medvedeva G.P. Social Work Ethics (Document)

Pavlenok P.D. Fundamentals of Social Work (Document)

Galaguzova M.A. Social pedagogy: course of lectures (Document)

Medvedeva G. Ethical aspects in social work (Document)

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MOSCOW STATE SOCIAL UNIVERSITY

ACADEMY OF SOCIAL WORK

G.P. MEDVEDEV

PROFESSIONAL AND ETHICAL BASIS

SOCIAL WORK

LECTURE COURSE

MOSCOW

INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………………………..4

SECTION 1. Professionally significant values of social work,

their essence, typology. The place and role of values in social

work……………………………………………………………………………………...8

Topic 1. The place and role of values in social work…………………8

Lecture 1. The place and role of values in the life of a person and society….8

Lecture 2. Axiological foundations of social work……………………….26

Topic 2. Professionally significant values of social work,

Their essence, typology…………………………………………………………….39

Lecture 1. System and hierarchy of values of professional social work……………………………………………………………………………………………………………39

Lecture 2. Specific values and ideal of professional social work…………………………………………………………………………………………………………….56

SECTION 2. The main stages of the formation and development of value

foundations of social work in Russia and abroad…………………..77

Topic 3. The main stages of the formation and development of value foundations

social work…………………………………………………….………………………….77

Lecture 1. Instinctive-practical and traditional-pragmatic foundations of assistance and mutual assistance………………………………………………………………………………….77

Lecture 2. Socio-ideological and socio-philosophical approaches to determining the value of helping a person………………………………………………………..90

Topic 4. The essence and content of the modern professional and ethical system of social work……………………………..….107

Lecture 1. Essence, functions and components of the professional ethical system…………………………………………………………………………………………………………..107

Lecture 2. Main determinants of the professional and ethical system of social work……………………………………………………………………………………………………………119
SECTION 3. Deontological issues of social work……………137

Topic 5. Deontological issues of social work………………137

Lecture 1. The concept and essence of professional duty in social work...137

Lecture 2. The place and role of duty in social work……………………………...150

Lecture 3. Deontological conflicts in social work………………………162
SECTION 4. Professional and ethical requirements for the professional program

social worker……………………………………………………170

Topic 6. Professional and ethical requirements for a professional program

social worker……………………………………………………………..170

Lecture 1. Features of the professional and ethical consciousness of a social worker…………………………………………………………………………………………170

Lecture 2. Problems of personality formation of a social work specialist…………………………………………………………………………………..188

SECTION 5. Ethical and value regulation of activities and relationships

in the social work system. Peculiarities code of ethics

social work……………………………………………………….206

Topic 7. Features of the ethical code of social work………..206

Lecture 1. Ethical and value regulation of professional activity and its codification…………………………………………………………………………………………………………206

Lecture 2. Features of professional and ethical codes in social work…………………………………………………………………………………………………………216

Topic 8. Professional and ethical regulation of the activities of a social worker under the influence of professional and ethical systems various types professional activities…………………237

Lecture 1. Ethical regulation of professional activities…………….237

Lecture 2. Features of the activities of a social worker in non-specific areas: professional and ethical aspects……………………………………………………………247
CONCLUSION………………………………………………………....257
LITERATURE………………………………………………………………………………..258

List of basic literature………………………………………………………258

List of additional literature…………………………………259
APPLICATIONS………………………………………………………………………………261

Professional Code of Ethics International Federation social workers………………………………………………………

Professional Code of Ethics of the Association of Social Service Workers……………………………………………………………

INTRODUCTION

The course of lectures “Professional and ethical foundations of social work” reveals the main content of the training course “Professional and ethical foundations of social work”, which is one of the basic ones in State standard training of specialists, bachelors and masters in the direction of “Social work”. In contrast to the previously taught course of lectures “Ethics of Social Work”, this academic discipline presents a fundamentally different approach to the place and role of the professional and ethical component of social work.

Social work is considered in the course of lectures as a type of social activity of society aimed at promoting the socialization of the individual and creating favorable conditions for this in society. The content of the course reflects modern scientific ideas about social work as an expedient multidimensional activity of society for the socialization of individuals, including those in difficult life situations, as well as the relationship and interdependence of the effectiveness and quality of social work, its forms and content with the conditions and level of development of society and the individual .

Recognition of man as the highest value modern civilization and the features of social work as a professional activity determine the essence and specificity of the value-ethical regulation of the activities of specialists, determine the requirements for his personal qualities, and thereby determine the content of this course. At the same time, the recognition of man as the highest value of modern civilization makes social work necessary both in a general sense and in particular with people in difficult life situations. From this point of view, the value of man and society and the need to realize these values is a meaning-forming component of social work.

The training course “Professional and ethical foundations of social work” includes the main components of professional ethical and axiological knowledge necessary for a social worker in his practical and scientific activities. The course is designed taking into account the students' systemic knowledge acquired in the process of studying general humanitarian and socio-economic disciplines and takes into account both general and special features of modern social work.

The purpose of the course is to form in students a holistic, systematic understanding of the value-ethical foundations of activity and professional morality in social work, to reveal the essence and substantiate the need for an ethical-axiological approach in understanding and organizing professional scientific and practical activities, to form the foundations of a specialist’s value-ethical thinking, Bachelor and Master of Social Work.

The objectives of the course are:

Studying the place and role, essence and typology of professionally significant values in social work;

Analysis of the main stages of formation and development of the value foundations of social work in Russia and abroad;

Studying the features of ethical and value regulation of activities and relationships in the social work system, the ethical code of social work;

Study of deontological issues of social work;

Analysis and justification of professional and ethical requirements for a social worker’s professionogram, assistance in the formation of professionally significant personality traits.

Professional social work refers to types of activities in which the professional and ethical competence of a specialist is a significant component of professionalism and contributes to the formation of holistic professional thinking of a practical and scientific worker in the field of social work. The professional and ethical system has a humanizing influence on the personality of the specialist, his client, their social environment and thus on society as a whole. As a result, the training course “Professional and Ethical Foundations of Social Work” is an integral component of the professional training of the future specialist, bachelor and master of social work, the basis for his subsequent personal and professional development and improvement. This determines the place and role of the course in socio-humanitarian education. It is advisable to include the training course in the third year plan, when students have already largely studied theoretical basis social work and formed an idea of its meaning and essence. The content of the training course “Professional and ethical foundations of social work” can be supplemented taking into account the specifics of the University and the region.

As a result of studying the course “Professional and Ethical Foundations of Social Work,” the student’s knowledge and skills must meet the requirements of the minimum knowledge and skills of the state educational standard.

The student must:

Have knowledge in the field of ethical and axiological foundations of social work, know their main elements and the relationships between them;

Be able to apply a systematic ethical-axiological approach to the analysis of the essence and content, forms and methods of social work in general and its individual types, as well as current social reality;

Know the main stages of development and formation of professional and ethical foundations of social work, their features, be able to identify, substantiate and analyze trends in the development of value-ethical foundations of social work;

Possess the skills of ethical and axiological analysis of processes, phenomena, situations, relationships, actions, documents, etc.;

Know the main components of the hierarchy of professional values of social work, its determinants;

Know the basic elements of the professional ethical system, the limits of their applicability, be able to analyze and apply them in professional practice;

Know the meaning and content of a social worker’s professional duty, be able to identify the deontological component in a specific situation;

Know the basic provisions of the professional code of ethics, be able to interpret them in a specific situation;

Be able to identify areas of value and ethical contradictions and conflicts in social work, have the skills to resolve them;

To know the features and contradictions of the formation of value orientations in modern Russia, the value-axiological consciousness of the individual in general and the professional social worker in particular;

Possess the skills of value-ethical self-esteem and self-control, self-education and self-improvement.

Section 1. Professionally significant values of social work, their essence, typology

The place and role of values in social work
Topic 1. The place and role of values in social work
The first topic studied in the training course reveals the concept of values and their role in regulating human behavior and activities, and his professional activities. The values and ideals recognized and implemented by a person serve as the most important motivators of his activities, as a result of which their study is necessary for the analysis and evaluation of his activities. Professional social work, which is in its infancy in our country, includes a specific professional and ethical component, the study of which is important for understanding its meaning.

Lecture 1. The place and role of values in the life of a person and society.

Lecture outline:

The concept of values. Values as the foundations, conditions and means of human life and society. Needs, values, value orientations, attitudes. Axiology as a doctrine of values.
The concept of a system and hierarchy of values. Structure of the value system. Value transversions and fluctuations. The ideal, its essence and content. Values and value orientations in professional activities. Values and goals, values and motivation for activities and professional activities. Ideals and goals. Features of value regulation of behavior and activity.
The professional and ethical component of social work, its place and role in the social work system. The essence of the ethical-axiological approach to the analysis and assessment of activities and professional activities. The place and role of the ethical-axiological approach in professional social work, its functions, goals, objectives.

Social work is a specific type of social activity, directly or indirectly covering almost all aspects of social life. It has a special, complex and multidimensional impact on the individual and society, which does not always coincide in direction with other determinants of social development. Social work is therefore one of the most important conditions and at the same time the means of development and improvement of man and society, their achievement of well-being and aspiration for good, since it requires readiness from man and society and determines their optimal preparedness for activities aimed at transformation and improvement of social and individual existence.

Activity, as a rule, cannot be undertaken by a person intuitively, chaotically, instinctively, without a previously developed guideline, without a goal. Wanting to achieve some new state or quality, different from the previously existing one, a person proceeds from considerations of the preference of this new one, therefore, it is more significant for him and represents value.

Values are specifically social definitions of objects in the surrounding world, revealing their positive or negative meaning for the individual and society 1 . Externally, values appear as properties of an object or phenomenon, but value is not an essential characteristic of this object or phenomenon. A person, his various needs, on the one hand, and the properties of an object or phenomenon that make it possible to satisfy these needs, on the other, give rise to a value relationship, the result of which is the assignment of the status of value to the object or phenomenon in question. Thus, values are objects that are significant for a person; Through the category of values, a person demonstrates his attitude towards them. Value is something that is not indifferent to a person. In other words, value is inherent in an object or phenomenon not by nature, but due to their involvement in the sphere of human existence, and through the concept of value a person determines his position in relation to this object or phenomenon.

Values arise in the process of social practice, which determines both the value object and the subject. A person learns the properties of objects in the external world in the process of satisfying his needs and interests and achieving his goals. Hence, the dual, objective-subjective nature of value is obvious: the properties of an object or phenomenon, thanks to which human needs can be satisfied, exist by nature, are inherent in these objects and phenomena and are therefore objective. They are independent of human demand and awareness of them as necessary and useful. Therefore, the objective component of value does not depend on human perception. By comparing his needs with the objective ability of external objects to satisfy these needs, a person recognizes objects as value or non-value. The reflection of the objective properties of an object is carried out by a person, therefore, value information reflects not only the phenomena themselves, but also their meaning, significance for the reflecting subject. The fact that a person evaluates an object or phenomenon from the point of view of his needs determines the presence of a subjective component of value. Human needs are changeable, they can be distorted, be actualized only situationally, etc., as a result of which value can have different meanings for different individuals, societies, and even for the same individual at different times. The presence of a subjective factor also determines the presence of systems of social, group, and personal values that are formed in the conditions of a specific method of production, the organization of the life of society, groups and individuals and their sociocultural experience. It is important to note that the concepts of good and evil, valuable and non-valuable are developed in the public consciousness primarily in relation to society, and only secondarily - to the individual.

In his judgments, decision-making, behavior, even individual actions, a person proceeds from certain values. Any activity in general is undertaken by a person and society within the framework of their orientation towards certain values that they recognize, and in accordance with this orientation, the activity can receive one direction or another, be constructive or destructive, more or less successful. Ultimately, it is the value systems and value orientations of man and society, which develop largely under the influence of specific historical conditions of life, that determine the need for human activity aimed at transforming and improving the conditions and ways of being. Therefore, among the numerous determinants of social work, the most important place is occupied by the value system of both society and social work itself as a vital and necessary sphere of social life.

The activities of man and society are undertaken mainly in the name of achieving a certain goal, which already before the start of activity exists as an ideal image of the desired final result. The goal of activity is not chosen by a person arbitrarily, it is a consequence of the conditions of human existence and his nature: the current state of affairs (no matter what we are talking about) does not satisfy the person and gives rise to the desire to make changes to it. Existing things lose their positive value in the eyes of a person, while the intended final result of activity - the goal - seems to be a value that requires implementation. Purposeful activity, as a rule, is undertaken by a person when there is the possibility of its implementation. This presupposes the presence of certain conditions and means of activity. By creating the opportunity to achieve a goal, a person attaches the importance of values to the conditions and means of activity, but they have a lower rank compared to the goal, because they do not have independent meaning: if a person does not strive for a specific goal, then the conditions and means of achieving this goal do not interest him. At the same time, activity as a whole can be presented as value-based (axiatic or axiological) in essence, since values are an integral component of each of its elements and, therefore, values are an integral characteristic of the process that constitutes the essence of activity. Thus, any activity can be presented as an activity for the realization of socially and/or individually significant values. This means that values are the universal basis of human activity and its universal regulator, and it is all the more important that the value foundations of both an individual and a group (including professional) and society as a whole correspond to ideas about the good of man and society. This allows us to consider values as the foundations, conditions and means of human life and society.

A person feels the need to realize values and organize activities in connection with this through need. Need can be represented as a state of an individual created by the need he experiences for something (an object of need) necessary for his existence and development, and which serves as a source of his activity. From this point of view, human needs are, along with others, regulators of his behavior, thinking, feelings and will. Numerous fundamental and applied studies of human needs make it possible to isolate in their diversity the needs of anthropomorphic (related to the biological nature of man) and sociocultural (determined by the processes of ontogenesis and sociogenesis) origin; both are important for understanding the nature of man and his activities. Both of them are inseparable from a person. The diverse needs of a person and society largely determine their attitude towards the world, existence, themselves, and therefore are an essential factor in the definition, systematization and hierarchization of values.

The most important values for a person can be presented as his value orientations, which are the most important component of the internal structure of the individual. Being formed and consolidated by the social and professional experience of the individual in the process of his formation and development, they delimit the significant, essential for the individual from the insignificant, insignificant. By setting meaningful life goals, they ensure the integrity and stability of the individual, give a general direction to his interests and aspirations, behavior and actions not only in a specific situation, but also for the future. Consistency, integrity and stability of value orientations is an important indicator that characterizes a mature, independent and autonomous personality, a stable, cohesive team.

Another important characteristic of an individual (group) is the presence of an attitude - a predisposition fixed in the social and professional experience of the individual to perceive and evaluate significant objects, as well as the individual’s readiness to act in a certain way, focusing on significant objects. Attitudes largely fix the value-normative attitude towards the object of analysis and activity. Of course, the presence of an installation, i.e. readiness to evaluate an object and act in a certain way in relation to it does not yet mean the unconditional unambiguity of an individual’s assessment and actions - there may always be an unaccounted factor that will play a decisive role in a particular situation. But the totality of attitudes determines the general orientation of the individual.

Thus, we can assume that values are represented, either explicitly or indirectly, in the most important personality structures. They, as value orientations, determine preferences and set the most important life goals. Being mediated in attitudes, values determine the individual’s readiness to act in order to achieve set goals, and therefore, in the name of realizing the most significant values. The role of values in the structure of the individual, his life activity and the life of society as a whole determine the need for their careful study.

The study of values is carried out by axiology (Greek axia - value, logos - teaching) - the philosophical doctrine of values. This scientific discipline, engaged in the study of values as meaning-forming foundations of existence that set the direction and motivation of human actions, actions, relationships and his entire life. The beginning of axiology as a science is associated with the name of the German philosopher R.G. Lotze (1817-1881), who first introduced the concept of “significance” (value) into the scientific lexicon. Currently, axiological research is devoted to the issues of the origin and typology of values, their various changes in connection with changes in human living conditions, factors influencing the content, hierarchy of values, the influence of values on the life of a person and society, etc. However, various groups of values, due to the polysemy and wide representation of values in human life, are studied not only by axiology. For example, ethical values are studied by ethics, aesthetic values by aesthetics, cultural values by cultural studies, economic (material) values by economics, etc. Research in the field of praxeology—the values of a person’s practical activity or, more narrowly, the values of professional activity—is of great importance, since systems of professional values play a significant role in the formation and maintenance of the meaning of professional activity.

Values in the consciousness of an individual, group or society, as a rule, are not a chaotic set, but are organized into a specific system that functions and develops in accordance with the laws of existence of any systems. Therefore, the elements of such a system (i.e., the values themselves) are essentially interconnected, united in accordance with a certain fundamental principle, hierarchized by the idea, each value occupies specific place in the system and performs certain functions. Therefore, the value system represents a holistic multiplicity of interconnected elements, i.e. an essentially, structurally and functionally related set of values that allow an individual or group to consciously and purposefully organize their activities, solve assigned tasks, and achieve their goals. It is obvious that the values that form the system are unequal, since the values have unequal significance. The value system is characterized by a hierarchical structure, so we can talk about a hierarchy of values – their ordering in accordance with significance and about ranks - levels of position of values in the hierarchy. The rank of value in the hierarchy can be objective and subjective, ideal and real - it depends on many factors. For example, food may represent a value of the highest rank for a hungry person, while being well-fed, the same person may name, for example, art, or freedom, or something else as the highest value.

Values, with all their diversity, can be typologized. In accordance with any of their generally accepted typologies 2, various groups of values can be identified and analyzed:

absolute - unconditional and irrespective, which means unchangeable and not dependent on anything, and relative, changeable and dependent on certain factors;
true, which are actually valuable, and imaginary (false), which are not;
positive, meeting the true needs and interests of a person and negative, the implementation of which will bring harm to a person;
conditional, receiving the status of a value under certain conditions, and unconditional, recognized as a value regardless of the conditions;
recognized - being values and recognized and recognized by a person as values (institutionalized) and unrecognized - actually being values, but not recognized as such;
“enduring” (“eternal”) and situational, becoming values in a specific situation;
subjective – representing (apparent) values due to certain circumstances and objective – objectively being values;
real - taking place in reality and ideal - taking place in theory;
ordinary – recognized and implemented in everyday life and professional (praxeological) – recognized and implemented in professional activity;
individual, group, ethnonational and universal – recognized and implemented, respectively, by an individual, group, ethnonational community or humanity;
actual - which are values here and now and potential - which can become such;
terminal (final) - values - goals and instrumental, which are values - means and conditions for achieving the goal;
practical - survival values and spiritual - values of personal development and improvement;
egoistic – aimed at oneself, for one’s own good, and altruistic – aimed at others;
highest (sublime) – indicating a high level spiritual development personal and base, corresponding to the base needs and instincts of man;
simplest (meeting the physiological needs of a person), interactionist (values of activity), socialization (values of development and personality formation) and life-meaning, determining life path personality, the meaning of its life and activities;
material-material (objective), spiritual-intellectual (values of consciousness), ethical (defined by values from the point of view of good, good and evil), aesthetic (defined by values from the point of view of beauty), religious (defined by values from the point of view of religion), etc. .P.

Not all known typologies of values are shown here. However, the above typologies speak about the diversity of values, and therefore, taking into account the dual nature of values, about the diversity and richness of a person’s value relationship to the world.

The value system of both an individual and society includes values various types(groups). It presents ethical, aesthetic, spiritual-intellectual, and material-material values. It contains terminal and instrumental values, true and false, etc. This is natural: the life of both a person and society is extremely multidimensional, and the rejection of values of any type or their non-recognition, underestimation and overestimation could lead to a violation of harmony in individual and social life, illusory goals, utopianism and stagnation in social life. Therefore, all types (groups) of values must be represented in social life and consciousness and occupy their rightful place. Accordingly, they must be represented in the structure of the value system.

The subjective nature of values largely determines not so much their totality, which changes little over time, but rather the hierarchy, which changes depending on the specific historical conditions of human life. Changing living conditions contribute to the transformation of human needs; this, in turn, entails changes in ideas about what is valuable and what is not valuable. This is due to the fact that a person draws his value views from direct practical activity, which undergoes significant changes over time. Therefore, changes in the hierarchy of values reflect, to a greater or lesser extent, the evolution of specific historical human needs.

This also suggests that values may not be equal to themselves, i.e. value transversions may take place ( changes in the meaning and content of a value) and fluctuations (changes in the rank of a value in the hierarchy) . Value transversions can occur in connection with the development public relations and consciousness of a person, a change in the level and quality of his knowledge, when recognition or study of an existing, seemingly familiar and relatively ordinary phenomenon allows one to reveal a new, deeper meaning, to redefine its essence. In this case, in accordance with the change in the meaning of the phenomenon, the object of evaluation also changes. For example, from the point of view of a representative of a slave-owning society, freedom is independence from the slave owner, a state opposite to slavery. From the point of view of a modern person, freedom is the freedom to be oneself, the opportunity to realize and choose oneself, activity and life in the absence of external pressure (coercion), in the presence of an alternative and sufficient information for responsible decision-making. Similarly, one can analyze the value of human life, considering it (life) as a state opposite to death, biological functioning, or as the totality of all manifestations of a person. These examples show that, depending on what exactly is understood as the essence and meaning of a phenomenon, a different value attitude towards it, a different assessment, is possible. Value transversion thus leads to a change in the rank of value in the hierarchy. However, transversion, which consists of a decrease in rank, may be accompanied by a change in the type of value itself. For example, if we consider a person’s life not as the totality of all his manifestations, but take into account only physiology, then, when deciding the question of the conditions of a person’s life, we will focus only on his survival, without taking into account that a person is not only a clot of protein matter, but also social and spiritual being. If freedom is considered the absence of formal slavery, chains, stocks, overseers and similar attributes, then existing spiritual, political, professional, religious and other unfreedom can be considered non-existent and insignificant.

Value fluctuations have a slightly different nature: they depend mainly on the situation, circumstances, and therefore can be short-term in nature. At the same time, an extreme situation and the corresponding value fluctuation can lead to the fact that high-ranking values can lose their significance. For example, the famous cry of Richard III “A crown for a horse!” from W. Shakespeare's play demonstrates an example of such value fluctuation: in a situation that threatens the life and freedom of the king, the horse appears as the highest value, since it will give a chance to save both life and freedom, and therefore, possibly, both title and power. In another situation, the crown as a symbol of title and power will be greatly valued by the king more valuable than a horse. In this example, there was a change in the ranks of values: terminal ones (title and power) received a lower rank than instrumental ones (horse).

One of the highest values is the ideal (from the Greek idea) - a model, a norm, an idea of the highest final perfection, the highest goal of aspirations. The creation and construction of an ideal is a universal form of specifically human life activity. The ideal has a dual nature: on the one hand, it contains the present in the form of a contradiction that requires its resolution, on the other hand, it embodies the desired future, being in this regard a universal value. It reflects the specific historical type of human consciousness and at the same time is itself a reflection of his value orientations. Due to the constant development of social relations, the resolution of one contradiction, i.e. Realization of the goal and resolution of the contradiction becomes a prerequisite and condition for the emergence of a new need and a new goal, the promotion of a new ideal. In ideals, reality is reflected in a specific way: they are directed to the future, to the creation of a new reality that excludes the contradictions existing in the present, and at the same time contain the potential of contradictions realized in the future. In this regard, the ideal is not eternal, unchanging and absolute.

The duality of the nature of the ideal is also expressed in the fact that it requires its justification and evaluation, since the desired and planned future does not necessarily have to be (and as historical practice shows, it does not always happen) better than what already exists. Any ideal as an image of the desired future state of the system must undergo theoretical justification, firstly, for compliance with the concept of “ideal” in general, i.e. on its ability to perform the functions inherent in the ideal and have the corresponding properties that characterize it as the highest good and, secondly, on compliance with objective ideas about the desired future. On the other hand, the ideal itself contains evaluative criteria in relation to the present, denying its self-sufficiency and perfection, revealing its contradictions and exposing the potential for improvement.

An important feature of the ideal is the fact that, as the most important means and the conditions for its implementation are the social subject, the physical and spiritual forces of the person himself as an active member of society. Unlike an animal, a person, before starting an activity, mentally imagines the desired outcome of the activity - an ideal image of the final result. At the same time, the presence of a mental image - an ideal that corresponds to a person’s ideas about perfection - makes it possible to compare the present reality with the desired one and give it an unsatisfactory assessment. Preparation for activity and human activity itself, aimed at obtaining this result, are organized in an appropriate way - it becomes expedient, and the content of the goal is determined in accordance with the ideal. We can name the main functions of the ideal: evaluative-comparative, program-oriented, active-practical. Thanks to these functions, the ideal realizes its essence, and the construction of the ideal becomes the most important factor development of the individual and society, improvement of their living conditions.

From an axiological point of view, professional activity, being an integral part of human activity in general, also fundamentally contains values and, therefore, can be presented as an activity aimed at realizing values. At the same time, of course, due to its characteristics, professional activity basically differs from everyday activity, representing something special. Therefore, the doctrine of the values of professional activity - praxeology - is special in relation to axiology. At the same time, of course, various types professional activities can differ significantly from each other in all basic characteristics; each of them is specific in relation to professional activity as an abstraction. This leads to the fact that the main values, systems and hierarchies of values of different types of professional activities may differ. Consequently, we can say that activity, professional activity and a specific type of professional activity are related as general, special and specific. Similarly, the value system of society, professional activity and specific types of professional activity will be correlated as general, special and specific. At the same time, axiology as a philosophical doctrine of values includes praxeology, and that, in turn, can include as sections the doctrine of values of specific types of professional activities.

The basis of any type of professional activity is the need to realize certain values. This circumstance does not depend on how much the specialists engaged in a particular job understand the basic values of the profession. However, their attitude to the work directly performed and to the profession in general largely depends on how deeply they understand the value meaning of the profession. The assimilation and appropriation of the value meaning and content of a profession helps to understand the place and role of the profession in society, human life, social, scientific and technological progress and, to some extent, determines them.

At the same time, of course, any profession, being a specialized activity, makes certain demands on a person, which cannot always be satisfied in the process of professional training. To perform professionally necessary operations, procedures, techniques, etc. a person must be sufficiently physically and intellectually developed, must have the appropriate qualities: to work as a loader, a good physical training; To become a scientist, you need a highly developed intellect. But the requirements for physical and intellectual data are not always sufficient. Some of the professions (mainly professions that have a decisive influence on the fate and well-being of a person and society, including the so-called “helping” professions) make special demands on the personality qualities of a specialist, primarily on his value orientations. For example, it is unlikely that anyone would want to become a patient of a sadistic doctor or a social worker whose highest values are money and power over clients. These types of “specialists” will harm their clients, the profession, and society as a whole. Even without resorting to such extreme examples, it can be shown that a specialist who has incorrectly placed value accents in his activities may perceive the process of activity itself as the highest value, and to a lesser extent – its final result, and may, as a result, not understand the meaning of the activity. For example, a social worker in this case may think that the meaning and purpose of social work is to help a person and will find it difficult to answer the question of why this is being done. Therefore, the value orientations of specialists play a crucial role not only in their personal professional activities, but also in the activities of the collective professional group.

The example shows a distorted understanding of the goal (the process of activity turned out to be its most important goal) due to the insufficient axiological competence of the specialist. This situation can conditionally be considered acceptable in isolated cases: each person is individual and, of course, there are people whose inclinations most fully correspond to this or that content of activity. Their need for self-realization can be satisfied by joining a certain profession. However, such an approach cannot be general; it should be the exception rather than the rule, since a profession should exist and exists mainly not because there are people who want to do it, but because its end result is in demand by man and society. In fact, medical professions exist not because some citizens want to be treated, but because people need to be treated, to get healthier; Doctors are needed because there are patients, and not vice versa. Likewise, social work and social workers exist because there are people who need their help. This means that the process of activity, which has high emotional significance for a specialist, cannot be the meaning and essence of professional activity in general, cannot be its goal: it only reflects its content.

This example shows how important research activities in the field of professional values are: it is on the basis of the system of the most important professional values and their hierarchy that it is possible to determine its meaning, place and role in society and human life, etc. A clear understanding of the values of professional activity allows you to correctly formulate its goals in general, on the scale of the entire professional group, as well as by each specialist individually. The motivation of the entire professional group, as well as of each specialist, should be formed on the basis of the most important values of the profession.

Ideal plays a vital role in setting a meaningful professional goal. Being an image of the desired future state of the object of activity, the ideal is objectified in its final goals, and then its individual fragments and features receive more detailed elaboration for private and intermediate purposes. Thus, the presence of an ideal determines goal-setting activity and potentiates the corresponding goal-oriented practical activity. However, this does not exhaust the role of the ideal in goal setting. Being at first, as a rule, only an idea of the perfect state of the object of activity, in the future the ideal requires the construction of ideal images of the activity itself and the subject of the activity, since it is not always possible to achieve the ideal state of the object without corresponding changes in the activity itself and its performers. Consequently, goal-setting activities and corresponding practical activities must begin, aimed at improving the profession or its individual components, the professional and personal growth of specialists. Thus, ideal-constructing activities in professional activities contribute to increasing its effectiveness, improving the quality of the final result and, ultimately, more fully satisfying the needs of society and people.

Any human activity is ultimately aimed at man. Having the opportunity to realize his basic properties and needs, a person is included in the process of activity as an active subject, participating in the transformation of society and the improvement of society and himself. The direction of a person’s activity is determined by the goals set, and those, in turn, by the values that a person has in general or in a specific period of his life, in a specific situation, vital importance. Of course, to organize an activity, a goal is not enough; the means and conditions for its implementation are necessary. Values-goals require a person to be active, aimed at finding means and creating conditions for purposeful activity, and the content of the goal largely determines the choice of means. When setting a significant goal, a person reassesses his individual values, comparing them in importance with the actual one, assessing the possibility of simultaneous implementation of several goals, considering values for using them as means, etc. Depending on the relationship between the value-goal and other values obtained as a result of such a value analysis and based on this result, the individual organizes his activities. It is important that the results of a value analysis conducted by an individual will not necessarily correspond to scientific ideas about individual and social good, about goodness, beauty and truth. From the point of view of the subject of analysis, they correspond to his value-goal, and therefore can be used. This means that in order to achieve a good goal, a person can subjectively choose illegitimate means (“the end justifies the means”), receive an unexpectedly negative result as a result of the activity, cause significant harm to others, providing benefits for himself personally. Therefore, the development of man and society can be progressive or regressive, contributing to the achievement of the good of the majority of members of society or a narrow group of people, just one person. At the same time, a person and society can motivate their activities with various, sometimes contradictory and inadequate, considerations, but the values present in the motive in an explicit or implicit form determine the necessity of the activity and set its direction, meaning and content, determine the means and methods. It is obvious that a person’s value orientations contribute to his choice not only of goals, but also of socially approved or, on the contrary, socially condemned means of achieving his goal.

Author	Book	Description	Year	Price	Book type
Medvedeva Galina Pavlovna		This book is the first domestic manual devoted to the study of the problem of the ethical foundations of social work as a specific type of professional activity. It examines... - Vlados, Textbook for universities	2002	129	paper book
Medvedeva Galina Pavlovna	Ethics of social work. Textbook for university students	This book is the first domestic manual devoted to the study of the problem of the ethical foundations of social work as a specific type of professional activity. It examines... - VLADOS, (format: 60x90/16, 190 pages) Textbook for universities	2002	110	paper book
Kholostova Evdokia Ivanovna		The textbook presents the theoretical and methodological foundations of social work technology as academic discipline and practices of specialists social institutions and services. Definitely... - Jurayt, Bachelor. Basic course	2015	1338	paper book
Edited by E. I. Kholostova, L. I. Kononova	Social work technology. Textbook for bachelors. Grif MO	The textbook presents the theoretical and methodological foundations of the technology of social work as an academic discipline and the practice of specialists in social institutions and services. Defined... - YURAYT, (format: 60x90/16, 190 pages) Bachelor	2011	1731	paper book
	Political and economic ethics. Tutorial	This publication presents the works of well-known German specialists in modern social ethics - B. Sutor and K. Homann. Both books share one goal: the authors explore the possibilities... - FAIR PRESS, (format: 60x90/16, 368 pp.)	2001	41	paper book
K. Kautsky		We present to the attention of readers a book by the outstanding German economist, historian and publicist, theorist of classical Marxism Karl Kautsky, which includes his works on the problems of... - Liebrock, (format: 60x90/16, 190 pp.) Thinking about Marxism	2012	395	paper book
Kautsky K.	Three crises of Marxism. Class interests. Class struggle. Ethics	We present to the attention of readers a book by the outstanding German economist, historian and publicist, theorist of classical Marxism Karl Kautsky, which includes his works on the problems of... - URSS, (format: 60x90/16, 190 pp.) Thinking about Marxism	2012	275	paper book
K. Kautsky	Three crises of Marxism. Class interests. Class struggle. Ethics	We present to the attention of readers a book by the outstanding German economist, historian and publicist, theorist of classical Marxism Karl Kautsky, which includes his works on the problems of... - Liebrock, (format: 60x90/16, 184 pp.) Famous armored vehicles	2012	234	paper book
Herbert Spencer	Political writings. In 5 volumes. Volume 5. Ethics of public life	Volume V publishes the three most important parts of G. Spencer’s final work “Foundations of Ethics”: “Justice”, “Negative Charity” and “Positive Charity”, together... - Society, (format: 60x90/16, 496 pages)	2015	686	paper book

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Textbook for universities

as teaching aid For university students

"Humanitarian Publishing Center VLADOS"

"Moscow State

social university"

BBK 65.272+87.75

The publication is carried out within the framework of the State program of scientific and methodological support for the specialty “Social work” - scientific director, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor V.I. Zhukov

Reviewers:

Doctor of Philosophy, Professor Yu. M. Pavlov;

Candidate of Pedagogical Sciences, Associate Professor S. S. Novikova

Medvedeva G. P.

M42 Ethics of social work: Textbook. aid for students higher schools, institutions. - M.: Humanite. ed. VLADOS center,

ISBN 5-691-00380-1.

This book is the first domestic manual devoted to the study of the problem of the ethical foundations of social work as a specific type of professional activity. It examines the main issues of the origin, formation, essence and content of social work ethics, its institutionalization in the form of a professional code of ethics; both theoretical and practical aspects of the social worker’s activities are revealed from the point of view of professional ethics and morality, the essence and content of his professional duty.

The textbook is addressed to students studying in the specialties “Social work” and “Social pedagogy”, practical social workers, as well as teachers.

BBK 65.272+87.75

ISBN 5-691-00380-1

Educational edition

Medvedeva Galina Pavlovna

ETHICS OF SOCIAL WORK

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as a teaching aid for students of higher educational institutions

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"Moscow State

social university"

BBK 65.272+87.75

The publication is carried out within the framework of the State program of scientific and methodological support for the specialty “Social work” - scientific supervisor, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor IN AND. Zhukov

Reviewers:

Doctor of Philosophy, Professor Yu. M. Pavlov;

Candidate of Pedagogical Sciences, Associate Professor S.S. Novikova

Medvedeva G. P.

M42 Ethics of social work: Textbook. aid for students higher schools, institutions. - M.: Humanite. ed. VLADOS center, 1999.-208p.

ISBN 5-691-00380-1.

The textbook is addressed to students studying in the specialty "Social work" » and “Social pedagogy”, practical social workers, as well as teachers.

BBK 65.272+87.75

ISBN 5-691-00380-1

INTRODUCTION

Among the many diverse features that determine the state and development trends of modern society, there are two characteristic features, the importance of which is difficult to overestimate.

The first of them is expressed in the fact that the activities of the state in official documents are acquiring more and more social orientation, i.e., when determining development priorities, the needs of man as the highest value of society are increasingly taken into account, in accordance with which state social policy is built. An integral sphere of activity of any civilized society is the creation and improvement of an extensive and effective system of social protection, the main purpose of which is to provide comprehensive one-time and/or ongoing assistance to an individual (group) who finds himself in a difficult life situation, in order to ensure his fullest self-realization.

The second feature is that there is an increasing desire in society to introduce the criterion of ethical assessment into a wide variety of areas of professional activity. Not only professional associations and communities discuss this issue and accept various kinds professional ethical codes or standards, but also public opinion both in the USA and in European countries addresses the problem of ethical regulation of the reality of specialists in all spheres of human life.

The crisis experienced by Russian society is characterized by the exacerbation of many social problems generated not only by economic reform, but also by the collapse of the value system and the decline of morality. Among the issues that require immediate resolution, the most important is the issue of improving the relationships between people involved in professional activities - the desire to build business and interpersonal relationships on a constructive basis, the ability to regulate professional behavior in various situations. In this regard, the question of correlating the activities of a professional social worker with ethical standards is very acute.

The task of ethical assessment of the activities of a social worker was not so pressing when social work was charity, an act of mercy on the part of individuals or their associations. During this period - before the October Revolution - charitable activities in our country were regulated mainly by the ideology of Orthodoxy, which was in fact the official state ideology, customs and traditions preserved from ancient times, and the aspirations of the philanthropists themselves. Commandments such as “love your neighbor as yourself” were sufficient for everyday use; various kinds of family, class and professional codes of ethical standards were only a continuation and development of religious standards, customs and traditions. At the same time, they did not directly address issues of ethical regulation of charity.

However, at present, when social work has become an integral part of the life of the state and society, when social workers have been included in the political, economic and social structures of society and public relations, there is a need for ethical standards of activity in the field of social protection of the population to be formalized , since, like all social institutions, the institution of social protection and social work ultimately fulfills the most important task for the state and society - the task of stabilizing and preserving society, maintaining and harmonizing existing social relations and providing conditions for its further comprehensive development - i.e. That is, in fact, is one of the essential factors in ensuring the stability and security of the state.

The natural question is whether, in addition to legislative registration and consolidation of the status and functions of social work, formalization of ethical standards in social work is really necessary, be it the adoption of a moral code for a social worker, ethical norms and rules, or some similar set of rules? Social work, as such, is ethical in its initial aspects and in its essence is a manifestation of high humanism and public morality; there are no restrictions, regulations and norms in it that would ignore spiritual values and moral principles approved by society. So should we talk about defining and establishing specific moral standards in one of the most humane and moral areas of professional activity?

This issue can be approached in two ways.

The classical approach considers ethical issues in professional activity as something external to the content of the activity itself and subjects the results of the activity, i.e., its product itself and its value to society, rather than the activity itself, to ethical assessment. In this case, we are guided not by the ethics of a specific sphere of professional activity, but by universal human norms and standards and, most importantly, by the values that modern society accepts and proclaims as basic.

The second - innovative - approach proposes to evaluate not so much the results of activity, but the activity itself, its essence and content - its goals and objectives, motives, means and actions used by specialists and institutions to achieve the goal - something that under normal conditions is not subject to control by society and the state or various types of formal and informal organizations.

Experience shows that the need for such ethical regulation of professional behavior and activities usually arises in cases where, in accordance with the specifics of the activity, increased moral responsibility is required from representatives of the profession, regulated by additional, more stringent norms of behavior, and when they do not act (or act weakly) internal ethical imperatives, determined not only by the essence and content of the profession, but also by the value orientations and high moral principles of its representatives.

The need for ethical regulation of professional behavior is observed in social work (and not only in it) in modern Russian society. The main reasons for this phenomenon can be considered the following:

1. The general decline in spirituality and morality in our country, the loss of positive value orientations cannot but affect the moral character of specific social workers as members of society. In modern conditions of development of Russian society, when for some people the first place is the desire to achieve personal success, to get rich, using all the available means for this, and for others - physical survival at any cost, a decline in morality is inevitable. The voluntaristic destruction of higher, transpersonal humanistic values that determine the strategic goals of development, the ideals and meaning of both personal and social existence, naturally lead to a sharp decrease in the value of human life, the individual as such, and neglect of her honor and dignity. The moral self-destruction of society is proceeding faster than the formation of “new” humanistic values. As historical practice shows, during such a period, high ethical standards learned in the process of education and socialization of the individual naturally and objectively fade into the background.

2. Social work does not yet have in our country the high status and prestige that it has, for example, in the countries of Europe and America. This cannot be explained only by the “youth” of this profession in our country, the imperfection of the legislative framework, and the insufficient number of certain types of social services and social workers in them. The point is also in the personnel, who do not always perform their duties competently and fully: social workers are most often allowed to work without any theoretical or practical training, acquiring professional skills already in the process of work and then studying in advanced courses qualifications in universities or secondary specialized educational institutions.

But it's not just a matter of vocational training, i.e., the qualification level of specialists. In conditions of stagnation of production, unemployment, low wages for employees of budgetary organizations (which include social services), in conditions of non-payments or delays wages and pensions, sometimes random people come to social work, morally unprepared for this type of activity, who set themselves the goal only of surviving difficult times for them, striving to have at least some kind of work and a stable source of livelihood. Such social workers, lacking appropriate motivation to work, perform their professional duties only to the extent of external necessity, without being guided by considerations of the humanity of their mission or the internal need to help people who find themselves in difficult life situations.

3. Social work as a specific type of professional activity is an innovation in our country that received impetus for development three quarters of a century after its formation in the countries of Europe and America. It is natural for our country to study the experience of states that have a well-functioning, reliable, time-tested and effective system of social protection. But each state went to the current state of social protection in its own way, taking into account local conditions, the needs of the population and the possibilities of meeting them. In this regard, studying foreign experience of social work, in addition to the positive opportunity to learn from other people’s experience, carries with it a certain negative aspect - a model you like, which works flawlessly on the “native” soil and has specific features, values and moral orientation, taking into account the mentality of the people, their expectations and specific social circumstances (together determining the choice of one or another model of social protection) may be completely or partially inapplicable in the conditions of modern Russia.

At the same time, foreign models of social protection have their supporters in our country, which gives rise to ambiguity in the understanding of representatives of various scientific schools of the very essence of social protection, its goals and objectives, value orientations, etc. and causes different interpretations of approaches to activity and interaction - how with the client, and within the social protection system, including in the field of moral relations between the subjects and objects of social work.

4. Social work as an institution is not autonomous; it is connected with various state and non-state structures by numerous threads, unequal in significance, content and focus. The state and local authorities have a powerful influence on social work, determining to a large extent not only where social workers should work, but also what and how they should do, which social groups should be the object of their influence, what type of influence should be this is the impact, under what conditions, in what time frame and in what volume assistance should be provided.

Finding itself to be largely dependent on external institutions, primarily on state structures, local authorities and the state of the economy, which determines the order, volumes and conditions of financing, social work cannot fully share with them the system of values that they actually profess. So, for example, a market economy is subject to the law of extracting the highest profit, which results in such negative phenomena as unemployment, impoverishment of a significant part of the population that does not fit into the market, etc. Social work is called upon to provide assistance to everyone who is involved in it needs, and gives preference to individuals who are not in demand by the economy and who do not have the opportunity, mainly because of this circumstance, to independently solve their problems.

5. Any sphere of human activity can function effectively only with appropriate ethical regulation. Therefore, the appearance in various areas of professional activity at certain stages of its development of professional ethical codes, already established in their main features on the basis of universal human values and ethical standards accepted by the community, is not accidental. Social work is a specific type of activity, social in its historical genesis, essence, conditions and consequences, a special type of human relationships. Social work is carried out in the interests of the whole society, regardless of whether it is aimed at an individual, group or society. In this respect, therefore, social work can be assessed in terms of general moral standards. However, being a manifestation of the morality and humanity of society in relation to its least protected members, dealing with certain circumstances and aspects of human life, and being aimed directly at people, social work must have its own, more stringent ethical principles and rules governing its activities. structures and representatives.

6. It should be borne in mind that there is a close ethical connection between the activity itself in the field of social protection and its final result, which determines the social worker’s choice of not only the goal, but also the means of achieving it. In order to build a humane society, rationality and pragmatism are not enough. The famous saying “the end justifies the means” is not appropriate in social work. In order for society to be humane, it is necessary to be guided by the principles of humanism and ethics in all spheres of human life. However, the presence of a morally positive goal and the choice of adequate means do not always guarantee success. Since it is sometimes difficult to foresee in advance how the result of the social worker’s activities will be used by the client, all responsibility for this cannot be placed on him. All the more important is the ethical orientation of a social worker’s activities: he must be impeccable in the eyes of his colleagues and society, and the result of his activities cannot be used against people, so that social work as a professional activity is not discredited.

7. Social work, like almost all types of activities, is aimed at people, that is, it is one of the ways to solve problems facing an individual, group or society. However, unlike most other types of activity, it is carried out not just with people, but with special people who have serious problems associated with difficulties in carrying out life activities. To successfully work in this area, a specialist does not need a formal approach, but the ability to understand and empathize with his client, to be sensitive and delicate. Therefore, the work of a specialist in the field of social work presupposes the organic unity of his qualifications and special spiritual qualities, a sense of high moral responsibility, and readiness to impeccably fulfill his professional duty to protect human rights.

8. Social work is a type of professional activity with a high degree of individualization of work. Despite the fact that the social worker is a member of the work collective, participates together with colleagues in working to achieve common goals for the team, represents the interests of the social protection institution and the interests of the state to the client, he is largely autonomous in his daily activities. This does not mean that the social worker is completely left to himself, uncontrolled and unaccountable, but his activities can most often be controlled only indirectly, since they are carried out one-on-one with the client. This circumstance requires the social worker to have special skills and strict adherence to ethical standards and rules of communication with the client and his social environment, and stricter self-control than outside professional activities.

9. The activity of a social worker is predominantly creative in nature, and there is always room for creativity and initiative within the strict framework of a formal technological scheme, making work with each client unique and original. The effectiveness of work largely depends on the specialist’s understanding and perception of the essence of the profession and his creative abilities and, in turn, determines the social, spiritual and financial situation of the client. Therefore, since we are dealing with a creative process, all the nuances of which cannot be formalized, and since it is not possible to exclude the appearance of “random” people in the profession (at least at the present stage), there must be internal ethical regulation of activities that contribute to the formation of a unity of approaches to solving problems and determining the normative behavior and actions of specialists.

These reasons seem to be worthy for updating the issue of developing and adopting ethical norms and rules that regulate the professional activities of each specific social worker, the activities and interaction of various social services and social protection bodies, their relationships with other institutions and taking into account the specifics of their activities taking into account the mentality of the Russian people and the expectations of society.

Reforming the economy in our country, transferring it to a market framework, has exacerbated the importance of moral relations in society. A person’s desire to be guided in his actions by ethical standards is natural, however, due to various external circumstances, it can be completely or partially suppressed. Therefore, the readiness of social workers to act from high ethical positions and moral attitude towards clients of social services is their significant contribution to the moral improvement of our society.

Russian society constantly and urgently needs fundamental, fundamental values that determine the paths of its possible development. Social work is one of the types of professional activity where concern for the welfare of everyone is the subject of everyday practical activity, as a result of which it can and should influence the processes of humanization of social relations. The culture of behavior, actions and communication of specialists should be based on their knowledge and understanding of both professional and general ethical norms and rules.

Ethical problems arise in all areas of a social worker’s activity: in the research he conducts, in the field of practical activities in providing direct social services to clients or groups of clients, in relationships with colleagues and with representatives of institutions and organizations “external” to the social protection system, with sponsors, in the development and formation of social policy, in teaching. The ethical difficulties of decision-making and activity here are mainly due to the fact that a specialist is constantly faced with problems of social, economic and political inequality, violations of the principle of social justice. The duty of a social worker is to contribute in every possible way to the restoration of justice, to help the client realize basic human rights, which is in the interests of both the client himself and the whole society.

One of the most important indicators of progress is the moral state of society. The population of the Russian Federation objectively needs an institute of social work, ready to protect its interests if necessary, however, it no less needs social work as the bearer of that high morality, without which the existence and development of a modern civilized society is impossible. Viewed from this position, social work as a social phenomenon is not only a social, but also the most important ethical factor in social development.

Currently in the Russian Federation in higher and secondary special educational institutions, advanced training courses and faculties prepare specialists of various profiles and levels to work in the field of social protection of the population. Their assimilation in the process of professional training of ethical norms and rules, which must be followed in theoretical and practical activities at any level, in any link of the system of social protection of the population, makes it possible to improve the quality of theoretical and practical training of specialists, and, consequently, the effectiveness of social work itself, her social significance, prestige and status.

Almost any human activity can be both highly moral and immoral, depending on what goals are pursued, what means and methods are used to achieve the goal, what motives determine the activity and how its achievements are used in social practice. Social work touches on all the diversity of aspects of human life, striving to improve the quality of his life, his social activity, self-respect and dignity. However, the efforts of social workers will only be beneficial if they serve the genuine interests of the population and are deeply moral at all levels of theory and practice.

An important role in bridging the gap between the conceptual foundations of professional ethics and their actual implementation in practice can be played by the system of professional training of social workers at all levels - from a social worker directly involved in providing social, medical, psychological, pedagogical and consumer services to the population, to a specialist employed development of the fundamentals of social policy or theoretical and technological foundations of professional activity, training and education of personnel. In this regard, the ethics of social work, as an educational and scientific discipline and one of the most important components of professional activity, is fundamental both in the training of a specialist in the field of social protection and in his practical activities in this area.

Russian society is going through difficult times. In this regard, I would like to quote the words of A. I. Herzen: “...But there is also a third kind of era, very rare and the most sorrowful - eras in which social forms, having outlived themselves, perish; an exceptional civilization reaches not only the highest limit, but even goes beyond the range of possibilities given by historical life, so that, apparently, it belongs to the future, but in essence is early detached from the past, which it despises, and from the future, which develops differently laws This is where the individual collides with society. The past appears like a mad rebuff. Violence, lies, ferocity, selfish servility, narrow-mindedness, loss of all sense of human dignity become the general rule of the majority. All the valiant things of the past have already disappeared, the decrepit world itself does not believe in itself and desperately defends itself because it is afraid, out of self-preservation it forgets its gods, tramples underfoot the rights on which it stood, renounces education and honor, becomes a beast, persecutes, executes, and between thus the power remains in his hands; they obey him not out of cowardice alone, but because on the other side everything is shaky, nothing has been decided, nothing is ready - and most importantly, that people are not ready. On the other hand, an unfamiliar future rises on a horizon covered with clouds - a future that confounds all human logic" 

Only activities imbued with humanism and morality, aimed at achieving the good of each person and the entire society, protecting their interests, can create conditions that will allow people to live in harmony with nature and with each other, and provide the opportunity for the development of society and each individual.

HISTORY OF THE FORMATION OF ETHICAL TRADITIONS

IN Rus'

In any period of social development, the main functions of morality are the regulation and assessment of individual behavior of people, bringing it into conformity with those norms and principles that are accepted by a given society as basic and reflect public interests. Moral norms not only contain instructions for proper behavior, they also fix such moral aspects of a person that are necessary for normatively approved behavior, since from a moral point of view not only actions and deeds can be considered and evaluated, but also motives for activity, goals, means and even intentions .

Morality is one of the earliest forms of social consciousness and regulators of human behavior.

There are two main points of view regarding the origin of morality. One of them connects the origin of morality with the first forms of joint labor activity, pointing out the fact that joint production activity gives rise to the need for moral regulation of this activity as a prerequisite for its successful implementation and maintaining the stability of society  The second point of view is that morality as a form of regulation of the behavior of an individual in a community of his own kind existed even at a time when there was no social division of labor and when a person, strictly speaking, was not yet a person, but as a half-animal led a herd lifestyle. The second point of view is considered more preferable, since “human society precedes any theory; it has its own nature, its own needs, the instinct of self-preservation, its own unwritten laws and its own conditions of existence, which it cannot abandon without destroying itself,” even if this is not society itself in the modern sense, but its prototype .

Man initially, while still homo erectus, lived in a society of his own kind, since an individual cannot satisfy his needs without entering into certain relationships with other people. The primitive horde, then the tribe - the first forms of the human collective, community, known to us from materials of archaeological, ethnological and paleontological research. The life of these distant ancestors can be judged only from the few testimonies that have come down to us, which time has spared. However, these few facts available for analysis make it possible to draw certain conclusions that interest us in connection with the issue under consideration.

First of all, we know that the original ancestor of modern man was a herd creature and that the primitive horde led a nomadic lifestyle, constantly moving from place to place in search of food; Moreover, the main methods of obtaining it were gathering and collective hunting. Being physically relatively defenseless, a person objectively needed to cooperate in his efforts with other people for successful hunting or protection from predators. In those days, the human ancestor was cruel, and the society of primitive people was a society where the fittest survived. Numerous works devoted to the prehistory of mankind indicate that the killing of children (apparently used as food during periods of famine) and the refusal to help the elderly, sick and wounded members of the horde were then in the order of things, everyday practice, since for those in constant movement of the horde slowly moving in force various reasons members are not just a burden, but a security threat to everyone, and therefore to everyone. A delay on the way, moving at the speed of the weakest and slowest could cause the death of the entire horde from hunger or as a result of an attack by the same wild people or animals. Therefore, L. Krzhivinsky  calls the primitive society-horde “a society without old people” and “a society of strong people,” meaning that weak people died quite quickly, without receiving help and support from their fellow tribesmen. Occurred acting in the animal world and spreading during this period of history to wild man natural selection, as a result of which the youngest, most agile and strong survived.

At the same time, based on the fact that the human ancestor did not live alone, we can conclude that in this initial period of human history there should have been certain regulators of the behavior of an individual in a community of his own kind. Of course, the semi-animal state of man made the predominance of the biological principle over the social inevitable, and it was this circumstance that determined the need to coordinate actions within the tribe and strictly regulate the behavior of its members: “... people interact with each other with a sense of morality, such actions correspond to our biological interests”  . Thus, for the semi-wild horde, only strong, strong and dexterous hunters were valuable, providing the horde with food and performing protective functions, if necessary, young women - as continuers of the family, and for women-mothers - their children due to the biological law of preserving the species. Thus, the values of primitive society were determined empirically, felt instinctively and had a clear biological connotation in full accordance with the collective survival needs of homo erectus as a specific biological species.

Strictly speaking, these were not values in our modern understanding - the human brain during this period was not able to comprehend such complex philosophical concepts as “values”, “good”, “good” - but at the level of primitive semi-animal sensations and instincts, man , of course, could differentiate between what was useful and what was harmful for himself and for the community.

Only one thing can be said about the moral relations of this historical period - they were collectivist, focused on joint physical survival, since the human ancestor could not survive alone, and contained only one law - the power of force in order to ensure joint survival. Morality (more precisely, primordial morality, instinctive morality, since we can talk, only very conditionally, about the normative regulation of human behavior from the point of view of good and evil and the focus on preserving society, its stabilization) was of a pronounced collectivist nature and implied the unconditional subordination of the weaker to the stronger , and this strongest (usually becoming the leader) had unlimited rights, unquestioned authority and absolute power, which gave him the opportunity to use his position primarily for his own purposes and resolve all issues arising in the horde by force. The same power, based on the need to ensure joint action, organized the life of the horde, preserving and increasing its vitality and strengthening collectivism, determined by the needs of survival. Thus, in the primitive horde, relations of social inequality reigned, based on physical and intellectual inequality, and the complete subordination of the interests of the individual to the interests of the collective.

Life in a collective and the desire to survive required primitive people to provide mutual assistance in defense and attack, i.e. in extreme situations, and it is obvious that such types of assistance were provided to each other collectively - otherwise man would have been destroyed by the forces of inanimate nature and the animal world. Within the horde itself, relatively peaceful relations had to be maintained, at least outwardly, and the leader took care of this, first of all, protecting the ancestors of man - his fellow tribesmen - from senseless self-destruction, putting an end to various feuds, unmotivated killings by fellow tribesmen of each other. Consequently, even in the most primitive society, such as the primitive horde, there should have been a system of the most general and universal norms and prohibitions, which would first of all guarantee the safety of existence in the community, the impossibility of its destruction “from within,” and a corresponding system of sanctions for violators of norms .

According to V. Vichev, “the first social norms, which arose as a reflection of the industrial need to curb animal individualism, as expedient forms of activity fixed by practice, are not so much positive as negative. They are dominated not so much by instructions to the individual, but by demands to refrain from certain actions, the dangerous nature of which has already been confirmed by practice. It follows from this that members of the community were prohibited from carrying out actions that would harm the community as a whole, which was monitored by the leader of the horde, punishing the disobedient. Thus, from the very beginning, norms of behavior that developed naturally or were established in a community with the help of taboos were aimed at counteracting what could interfere with the community’s livelihoods, satisfying its needs and what would pose a threat to its safety.

The very concepts of “good”, “good” and “evil” during this period for a person were practically no different from the feelings of an animal: warm, satisfying, safe - good, good; danger, hunger, cold are evil, since the sounds made by man during this period, and most importantly, the concepts they denoted and expressed, were not much more diverse and richer than those of animals. The primitive collective is a social organism, a closed community opposed to the rest of the world in a brutal struggle for existence. Primitive man is a collectivist, but not because of his high morality, but because of the need to fight for existence.

Thus, we can conclude that the morality of help and mutual assistance is rooted in the nature of man and human society: in the primitive horde, the behavior of each of its members met the requirements of survival in the natural environment and was aimed primarily at satisfying collective needs - ensuring survival, safety, procreation. However, this was not caused by considerations of duty and conscience, as Yu. G. Semenov believes, but, firstly, by the instinct to preserve the species, which required sacrificing the little (individual survival) in the name of the greater (preservation of the species), and, in -secondly, by the fact that it was not possible to satisfy the above needs of survival alone - the world was hostile to a person who did not have the same physical characteristics as most predators leading a paired or solitary lifestyle. At the same time, man followed the same instinct of gregariousness or collectivism, which is followed by animals, the basis of whose behavior is not attack, but self-defense - that is, predator animals. In fact, a person had no choice of behavior; there were no positive alternatives to collectivism. In the absence of free will, it is difficult to talk about the morality or immorality of behavior, although some types of mutual assistance and support at the instinctive level in the horde took place as a prototype of future moral relations.

According to historians, relative “humanization” and moralization of relationships in primitive society occurred after the greatest event in human history - the development of fire. The use of fire given by nature and then its arbitrary extraction, storage and use for one’s own needs became, according to many scientists, a turning point in the history of mankind. The discovery gave people real opportunity become more humane and value human life as such.

The fact that human life, the person himself in this period already becomes the highest value, albeit not fully realized objectively, is indirectly indicated by the following fact: the greatest and most valuable sacrifice to the spirits (ancestors or natural objects and phenomena), whose cults in this period were already existed, a human sacrifice was considered, brought in especially responsible, important and significant cases, while in everyday life one could limit oneself to the sacrifice of cereals, food, animals, and various products. Moreover, the youngest, strongest and most beautiful members of the tribe were chosen to play the role of the victim in a variety of human communities living in different parts of the globe - the most valuable and best that the tribe had at its disposal.

The constant use of fire made possible the transition to sedentary lifestyle life - fire not only made housing more comfortable and warm and eliminated the need to migrate “following the summer” and following herd animals moving south, but also protected from predatory animals, and made it possible to stockpile food in case of famine, and hunting with with the use of fire it became more prey. Apparently, with the use of fire, the morbidity and mortality from colds and some other diseases decreased to some extent, which made the tribe more viable.

With the use of fire, the ability to create more advanced tools for labor and hunting appeared, which made human existence more stable and secure. As tools improved, the first primitive division of labor arose between members of the tribe and between genders and age groups, and in these new conditions, weak members of the tribe - children and old people - also turned out to be useful. The latter could play and, as history and ethnography say, in fact played, along with women, the role of keepers of the fire, its “breadwinners,” since this did not require much physical effort, but made it possible to free able-bodied women and men to perform more labor-intensive and urgent work. Their presence and maintenance for the tribe was no longer such a heavy burden as before; it gradually became necessary, although in periods of famine or other extreme circumstances, death (including at the hands of fellow tribesmen) still awaited the weak first.

This concerned children to a lesser extent: they are the future of the tribe, its potential, and therefore received necessary help and care to take the place of the elders in due time. However, the fact that old people, who from a biological point of view had already fulfilled their function and become useless, still had the opportunity to live in a tribe and not die of hunger and cold, suggests that a person becomes a truly human, social being, and is not only one of the many biological species existing on earth. Such primitive collective altruism was an objective necessity, since “... a tribe comprising a large number of members who are endowed with a highly developed sense of patriotism, loyalty, obedience, courage and concern for others; members who are always ready to help each other and sacrifice themselves for the common good should prevail over the majority of other tribes, and this is natural selection  ", since it corresponds to the laws of nature, since it is "not interested" in individuals and individuals.

This change in attitude towards children and the elderly, in turn, led to even greater changes. The gradual complication of work entailed the need to teach the younger generation the techniques of professional activity, transfer of labor skills and hunting tricks, and this became the “point of contact” between old members of the tribe and children. Old people living in the tribe, former hunters and craftsmen, were given the opportunity to pass on their life and professional experience, knowledge and skills, and children were able to adopt them, which ensured not only the continuity of knowledge and skills, but also tribal customs and traditions associated with the rules behavior, and relationships between members of the community - and this in turn increased the importance for the tribe of both children and old people.

As G. Spencer pointed out, “any society strives to form its members in such a way that the implementation of social functions is desirable for them,” as a result of which it becomes necessary to instill in everyone the norms of human communication and interaction that are most appropriate for society. In this case, the most rational thing is to transfer knowledge and skills from seniors to juniors. Such circumstances contribute to the formation of ideas about the importance of not only mutual assistance among the strongest members of the tribe, but also caring for the weak, their maintenance and support. According to A.F. Anisimov, during this period of his history, “man did rationalistically everything that was in his power at that time, in order not to break before the power of the nature surrounding him,” and caring for the weak - children and the elderly , inextricably linked with each other due to the need to transfer experience, both professional and life, was rational: if you need to learn, then you need teachers and mentors from among the most experienced members of the tribe, and not bound by the need to carry out daily work to support the life of the tribe and those who have the opportunity to devote oneself entirely to the education and upbringing of children and youth. During this period, the possibility of variability in the behavior of an individual increases, although in general the objective regulation of behavior and activity is very strict.

With the formation of the maternal family, a person received “the first lesson of the individual, which taught him how much he wins in the struggle for existence by entering into an association to which the individual sacrifices exceptional egoism, but from which he receives an enormous increase in strength, the results of common experience, the common work of thought of all members of the association and the tradition of a long series of generations ". If earlier, when man had not yet completely separated from the animal world, his altruism and collectivism were determined only by biological nature and instincts, then at a later time man begins to realize the social value of altruism. And subsequently, with the complication of social relations and the formation of more complex and perfect forms public life, this “first lesson about the benefits of someone else’s life for the convenience of one’s own could not be in vain,” since the strength and viability of the entire community, and consequently the safety of its existence, depended on it.

It was during this period that the gradual formation of moral relations proper began, regulating the interaction of people and the forms of their existence on the basis of certain moral laws. These laws are no longer motivated by purely utilitarian considerations, but by references to tradition, custom, and norm. Accordingly, they are more or less permanent in nature and are acquired by all members of the community in childhood in the process of learning and upbringing. Laws change only under the influence of emergency circumstances associated with various natural and social factors, with changes in people’s lifestyles, but in their fundamentals they are passed on from generation to generation in the form of oral traditions, legends, commandments, and prohibitions.

The appearance of the first forms of mutual assistance between people, prototypes of future charity, can be attributed to this period. The more or less stable existence of the tribe, the way and style of its life not only required, but also made it possible to provide assistance not only to the weak, unable to feed themselves and solve other pressing problems (for example, after the death of the head of the family, the breadwinner) to fellow tribesmen, members of the clan, but also to people “from the outside” who found themselves in the tribe in peacetime. Apparently, the first types of social assistance that arose precisely during this period of human history were providing shelter and feeding strangers, travelers, “foreigners” who came in peace. Such forms of assistance to foreigners could appear only if there were already established traditions of caring for their fellow tribesmen in need and the increased economic potential of the tribe and its relative material wealth. Research by Russian and foreign ethnographers  leads to the inevitable conclusion that for primitive man, caring for a needy stranger was the norm.

However, to a much greater extent, moral regulation of relations between people was required and, accordingly, developed with the advent of family and property. A.G. Kharchev believes that morality arises and functions during this period “as a way of overcoming the contradiction between the individual and society,” between the interests of owners and the community as a whole. The first moral principles inherited from homo erectus pursued the same goal of preserving the unity and cohesion of the clan and, in connection with this, its safety and vitality, and therefore represented prohibitions on actions and deeds that caused hostility and discord between members of the community. The prohibitions on the murder of a fellow tribesman not motivated by public interests, the rejection and theft of his property, which most often included his wife, as well as the widespread veneration of the elderly had a specific meaning and content - the preservation of the integrity and unity of the community, its vitality and defense capability, the continuity of traditions and way of life. Such a ban did not always apply to foreigners.

L. N. Gumilyov’s conclusions about biologically and socially determined collectivism and altruism, although they relate to a later formation - ethos, can with a high degree of probability be applied to more recent early forms communities, right up to the primitive horde: “In order to win, or at least defend oneself, it is necessary that an altruistic ethic arise within the ethos, in which the interests of the collective become higher than personal ones. Such ethics is also observed among herd animals, but only in humans it takes on the significance of the only species-protective factor,” meaning that altruism and collectivism imply obligatory mutual assistance among members of the community.

The tribes of the Slavs and Rus who inhabited the territory of present-day Russia were no exception in this regard.

Thus, the Byzantine historian of the 6th century Procopius of Caesarea wrote: “These tribes, the Slavs and the Antes... have lived in the rule of people since ancient times, and therefore happiness and misfortune in life are considered a common matter among them.” “Honesty and camaraderie among them are such that they, completely unaware of either theft or deception, do not lock their chests and drawers,” says the “Biography of Otto of Bamberg.” Mauritius the Strategist, Adam of Bremen, Ibn Ruste, Ibn Fadlan and other travelers who left notes about their visit to the Slavic lands are unanimous in the opinion that it is difficult to find people more hospitable, welcoming, benevolent, merciful and fair than the Slavic peoples. Numerous folklore sources - epics and fairy tales, where the following plot was typical: the hero, finding himself in an unfamiliar place among potential enemies, declares the need to observe the laws of hospitality and demands attention and care, which he immediately receives. and is provided by shamed enemies.

The harsh natural and climatic conditions that determined the method of economic management made the Slavs natural collectivists and determined joint residence and activity as necessary and only possible forms existence. During this period of Russian history, community assistance developed widely. Not only fellow tribesmen could always count on the help and support of their neighbors in case of need, but also strangers. They treated foreigners who came to the Slavs for peaceful purposes with exceptional care, providing them with help and protection, and even prisoners of the Slavs received freedom after a certain time. And the very treatment of prisoners was more lenient than among other peoples, as follows from the works of travelers and traders who visited the Slavic lands at that time.

Thus, we can conclude that the Slavic tribes already in this early period history, the division into “us” and “strangers” was less clear, and the ethics of relations, in particular, the ethics of mutual assistance, applied to both more or less equally, of course, provided that the “strangers” were peaceful and did not pose a threat to well-being Slavic family or tribe. Even non-believers received equal rights with the Slavs if they, while remaining among them, “did not flaunt their Christian faith” (according to Adam of Bremen), that is, did not offend the worldview of the Slavs, based on the ancient pagan religion.

The first, the most general and objective from the point of view of the needs of living together and the activities of people, moral principles noted by historians and ethnographers among all peoples of the earth, were later enshrined in religious norms and commandments, and subsequently in secular laws. The introduction of Orthodoxy in Rus' as the official state religion and ideology made its dogmas the basis of the ethical views of the believing population.

The most widely known set of religious norms and rules, which also extend to the ethical foundations of human coexistence, is the Bible. The Old Testament, the holy book of the Jews, contains norms and rules that regulate not only purely cultic, religious aspects of life, but also behavior in secular, everyday life. The Old Testament also contains ethical requirements that prescribe helping a fellow tribesman and a foreigner.

Thus, in the Old Testament, people repeatedly receive orders from the mouth of God to do good, because it pleases God, and, on the contrary, a person will suffer punishment from Him for the sins and crimes they have committed. The story of the first murder in the history of mankind contains not so much a legal, but an ethical assessment of what was done:

“And the Lord said to Cain: Why are you upset? and why did your face droop?

If you do good, don't you raise your face? and if you do not do good, then sin lies at the door; he attracts you to himself, but you rule over him” (Genesis 4; 6, 7).

Cain, who committed a crime, is punished by God. He is doomed to eternal wandering:

“And the Lord said to him: for this reason, whoever kills Cain will have sevenfold vengeance” (Gen. 4:15).

These lines from the Old Testament require a person to do good: a kind, merciful person can openly look into people’s eyes without hiding his face; he enjoys the respect of his fellow tribesmen - this corresponds to ideas about the norm. We can conclude that in the understanding of the ancient Jews and Israelites, not doing good to people, being callous, cruel and selfish is shameful and immoral; As a result, the merciless, cruel person was condemned by the community. The same text contains a ban on unauthorized killing: even if a person is guilty and deserves the death penalty, justice should not turn into lynching, settling personal scores, blood feud, tribal feud, sowing discord between fellow tribesmen and weakening the entire community. Since the neighbors and friends of the warring parties, willingly or unwillingly, find themselves drawn into the feud, it can take on an uncontrollable mass character, leading to the weakening and even destruction of the clan.

However, the most complete moral commandments, which must be followed in conditions of compact living and in the practice of joint activities, are contained in the second book of the Torah - Exodus. The Prophet Moses, as stated in this book, received the commandments on Mount Sinai from the lips of God himself and then from His hands - engraved on tablets (stone tablets):

“Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

Dont kill.

Don't commit adultery.

Don't steal.

Do not bear false witness against your neighbor.

Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house; You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s” (Ex. 20: 12-17).

These moral requirements for the behavior and actions of a person living in a community form the basis for the coexistence of people. They are repeated in the books of the Torah Leviticus (Lev. 19; 11-18, 29, 32-36) and Deuteronomy (Deut. 5; 16-21). It is characteristic that these requirements regulate the relations mainly of fellow tribesmen - members of the community - both old-timers and “newcomers” who remained in the community to live, accepted the faith and therefore are considered among “their own”. The Old Testament also requires assistance to the poor and needy, and we are talking about both moral support and material assistance:

“If you have one of your brothers who is poor in one of your dwellings in your land which the Lord your God is giving you, do not harden your heart or close your hand against your poor brother.

But open your hand to him and lend him, depending on his need, what he needs.

For the poor will always be in the midst of your land; therefore I command you: open your hand to your brother, your poor and your needy in your land” (Deut. 15; 7, 8, 11).

In these lines of the Old Testament one can see a clear and clear division into our own and others: with our own, that is, fellow believers and fellow tribesmen living “on your land,” one should have acted fairly, mercifully, taking into account moral norms and principles that require comprehensive assistance. helping someone in need. It was considered quite acceptable to allow immoral and illegal actions towards a non-religious person, a stranger: foreigners and non-religious people can be given money in interest, they can be exacted in full, killed, robbed and enslaved ; A “friend” beggar enjoys greater privileges than a “stranger”, a non-beggar. This division into “us” and “strangers” was a common rule in ancient history, when constant and brutal wars were fought between neighboring states, peoples, and tribes. The Hellenes despised the barbarians, the Slavs - the filthy, the faithful Jews - the infidels. Moral standards for a long time were national in character.

F. Engels noted that “... ideas about good and evil changed so much from people to people, from century to century, that they often directly contradicted one another,” and this, in his opinion, is due to the fact that their a person draws his views from direct practical activity, which undergoes significant changes over time.

Christianity, based mainly on the New Testament, unlike Judaism, does not so strictly regulate the daily life of a person, his behavior and actions in various life situations (the Old Testament contains 613 prohibitions and instructions that a believing Jew must fulfill) - it rather establishes ethical and social criteria and norms, guided by which, a believer must independently determine his behavior.

Orthodoxy, gradually spreading among the population of Russian cities and villages, did not contradict the ethical ideas of the Russians about the need to help those in need and follow the age-old traditions of mercy. The ethical principles that had developed by this time in Christianity, and especially in Orthodoxy, regarding the help and support of the suffering, the poor, the poor and orphans, partially repeating the commandments of the Old Testament, formalized and streamlined, and in some respects contributed to their further softening. Orthodoxy, as a branch of Christianity, is a supranational religion and does not divide people by nationality, race, skin color, level of material wealth or other characteristics; the only criterion for division is faith, as a result of which all professing Christians are “brothers in Christ.” In accordance with this, relations between people should be fraternal, kind-hearted, imbued with concern for each other, which, as an ethical principle, was also inherent in the ancient Slavs, who always treated peace-loving strangers cordially, carefully and hospitably. This dogma, which developed during a period when Christianity was only the belief of a handful of sectarians - followers of a new teaching, and not a world religion, was preserved in the later stages of the development of Christianity.

For example, the Sermon on the Mount of Jesus Christ consistently develops the basic ethical principles set forth in the Torah: “Do not think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets; I did not come to destroy, but to fulfill” (Matthew 5:17). Much attention is paid to almsgiving in the Sermon on the Mount, and it is especially emphasized that almsgiving should be an act of mercy; and be performed secretly, without counting on public recognition and reward from a person or society for a given act of mercy; only in this case can the giver of alms receive reward from God. The most important ethical principle set forth in the Sermon on the Mount can be considered the following:

“So in everything, whatever you want people to do to you, do so to them; for this is the law and the prophets” (Matthew 7:12).

This greatest moral law, regulating human relationships in all areas of joint activity and coexistence, the “golden rule of ethics,” cannot be considered a discovery of Christianity: it is fundamentally logical and applicable in all spheres of human activity and joint practice, and therefore is found in almost all nations in one form or another, reflected in folklore, later works of philosophers, and included in religious texts. This law exists, for example, in a conversation recorded by students with Confucius:

The teacher asked: “Is there one such saying that you can follow it all your life?”

The teacher replied: “What you don’t wish for yourself, don’t do to others,” which speaks of the universality of the moral law. The coincidence of moral norms and rules of different peoples is not borrowing. This coincidence only proves the unity of human consciousness, the similarity of living conditions and historically established forms of human communities.

The Russian people formulated the above “golden rule of ethics” in the form of proverbs that are still in use today: “As it comes around, so it will respond”, “Don’t dig a hole for someone else - you’ll fall into it yourself”, “Don’t spit in the well, you’ll need to drink water” and others.

In Ancient Rus', the ethics of helping people, of course, was not formalized into a separate branch of knowledge and was not recorded in works devoted to this issue. Ethical views on the problems of assistance and mutual assistance existed only in the most general form, in the context of the norms of human society, which proves the ordinariness of the very fact of providing assistance. Their origin and essence can be traced to some extent in the most ancient monuments of Russian literature, in folklore works.

For the Slavs, who traditionally lived in an atmosphere of collectivism and mutual assistance, the meaning and essence of the covenants of the new Christian religion regarding helping those in need were, despite the negative perception of the religion itself, not something new brought from the outside, but rather a logical continuation of centuries-old folk traditions, due to why exactly this part of the Christian doctrine was perceived by the people as a matter of course. It was not unnatural for the Slavs to demand not to flaunt their charitable activities, to do good deeds at the call of the heart, and not out of selfish hope for subsequent lifetime reward. Mutual assistance, assistance to those in need due to the way of life determined by natural, geographical and economic conditions, was as natural for the pagan Slavs as life itself.

Introducing Orthodoxy in Rus' at the end of the 10th century, the Great Prince of Kiev Vladimir made sure that not only the letter, but also, most importantly, the spirit of Orthodoxy would triumph on Russian lands, so that Orthodoxy would become as soon as possible state religion, having won popular recognition. Not only worship according to the Eastern rite, but also the ethics of Christianity, its teachings about mercy, brotherhood of people, love for one's neighbor and mutual assistance were to become the ideological basis of the state. To this end, Prince Vladimir in 996 entrusted the Orthodox Church with caring for those in need and allocated funds for their maintenance and support. A tenth of the profits from trade, legal proceedings, and agricultural income (“church tithe”) was allocated for these purposes.

However, unlike primitive Slavic altruism, the Orthodox doctrine of helping one's neighbor is based on different values. If during the period of pagan Rus' the Slavs provided assistance to those in need in order to preserve the integrity and vitality of the clan, then Orthodoxy requires assistance to the suffering because for those who give alms or provide other assistance this is the most reliable way to find the Kingdom of Heaven. Thus, it can be noted that while the ethical standards regarding actions were externally identical, their purpose and essence differed significantly.

Since ancient times, the Russian people have created works that are primarily in the nature of moral teaching, testament and determine human behavior in society, in the family, in his relationships with other people, that is, in everyday activities and communication. Among the outstanding monuments of ancient Russian culture, Vladimir Monomakh’s “Instruction” represents the most holistic system of ethical views, which touches, among others, on the problem of helping those in need.

Prince Vladimir Monomakh in his “Instruction” to his descendants (1099) wrote about the need to show tireless care for the poor, the wretched, orphans, widows, support them financially and restore social justice, protecting the weak from the oppression of the strong: “In particular, do not forget the poor ... honor the old as a father, and the young as brothers... visit the sick.” But the prince bequeathed to his descendants not only to provide material assistance to the poor and disabled, to protect the disadvantaged and restore the rights of the offended, but also to be polite, friendly, affectionate, and cordial with all people: “Do not pass by a person without greeting him, but tell everyone when you meet kind word ". Vladimir understood that a kind word, a word of consolation from the lips of a prince - the supreme ruler of Rus' - for a poor person, an orphan, an offended person means, perhaps, no less than a good deed and, in addition, creates a certain glory for the ruler. Vladimir Monomakh especially emphasized the need for respectful treatment of foreigners, since “... wandering throughout all lands, guests spread good or bad fame about us.” Partially repeating in his “Teaching” the basic ethical norms of Christian virtue set out in the “Sermon on the Mount,” Vladimir Monomakh, however, pays more attention to concrete help to people: “First of all, for the sake of God and your soul, have the fear of God in your soul and give unfailing alms; for this is the beginning of every good thing.” Monomakh considers “doing alms” as a way to improve one’s own soul, its salvation, as an indispensable condition for gaining the Kingdom of Heaven, and this requires complete selflessness from the one doing alms (from the point of view of Orthodoxy, selflessness lies in the independence of actions from the expectations of the lifetime material success of the enterprise, but in the hope for reward in the form of the Kingdom of Heaven), dedication, fulfillment of the mission, the duty of the ruler as a defender of the people and, first of all, the disadvantaged. Thus, Monomakh considered it important to observe general moral rules, among which are the ethical rules of charity: respect for people, the ability to be useful, be true to one’s word, take care of the poor and protect them, do good to people and avoid evil, give alms.

Traditions of private charity, carried out by people whenever possible, regardless of their social and economic status, were widespread in Rus'. Beggar lovers, including princes, representatives of the clergy, merchants, and simple peasants, fed the poor, gave alms in money, food and clothing, and provided temporary shelter. In fact, until the 20th century, in some Russian villages and localities, the ancient custom of letting wanderers into their homes, providing individual and collective assistance to poor neighbors, disassembling houses and adopting orphaned children, etc., was preserved, without expecting profit or good deeds, but simply because it is impossible otherwise - it is impossible not to help people who find themselves in trouble and need. The richest Russian folklore convincingly testifies to the high morality of the Russian people, including in their attitude towards those in need of help.

The traditions of Christian ethics of charity were also supported by the best representatives of the clergy. The Monk Sergius of Radonezh, having founded the monastery, became the “commandment to give rest to the poor and strange and to give to those in need.” In a farewell conversation with his students, he leaves them behests. Among the covenants that have a purely religious meaning, there is a covenant of mercy - “not to forget the love of strangers” - that is, not just to help those in need, give them alms and look after them, but also to love them with Christian love, as one’s brothers, and, therefore, to help in a brotherly manner, selflessly (in the Christian understanding of selflessness) and willingly, performing one’s duty out of love for one’s neighbor, which is a Christian virtue.

The Venerable Joseph of Volotsk not only himself helps those in need, opening granaries during famine and giving food a day to seven hundred sufferers, but also calls on princes and boyars to show mercy. He convinces them to provide assistance to the people under their control, at least in their own interests - an impoverished plowman will not be able to pay tribute and feed his family; the ascetic threatens the merciless rulers with the Last Judgment. True, here, as G. Fedotov notes, “the thought of the soul of a stingy rich man or his own brethren comes out more clearly than compassion for the poor.”

Elder Seraphim of Sarov called for doing good, considering this the most important means of achieving the goal of a true Christian - gaining the Kingdom of Heaven: “The true goal of our Christian life is to acquire the Holy Spirit of God... every good deed done for the sake of Christ is a means for acquiring the Holy Spirit of God. .. only for the sake of Christ a good deed done brings us the fruits of the Holy Spirit... A good deed cannot be called anything other than gathering, for, although it is not done for the sake of Christ, it is nevertheless good.” In this last sentence the deepest essence of human mercy and kindness is expressed, regardless of religiosity: this is the acquisition of the person himself (collection), his spiritual wealth, values, since by doing good to another person unselfishly, he achieves good for his soul. The main doctrine of Christian ethics is to achieve peace in oneself and around oneself, that is, spiritual improvement of oneself and the world around oneself, which can be achieved not only by prayers and scrupulous performance of rituals, but also, first of all, by kindness, mercy, and honesty , conscientious work.

Theophan the Recluse , considering the essence of spiritual life, says that in its active part “from the action of the spirit comes the desire and production of selfless deeds or virtues, or even higher - the desire to become virtuous,” and the soul of a virtuous person does good deeds not because they useful, but because they are “good, kind and fair.” “Look at heaven and measure every step of your life so that it is a step there,” these words repeat the basic idea of Orthodox ethics, previously expressed in the works of other ascetics and theologians. We are talking about the need to take care, first of all, about your soul, about peace and harmony in it, and also about the fact that it is in connection with caring for your own soul to help your neighbor: “The goal is a blissful life beyond the grave; means - deeds according to the commandments, the fulfillment of which is required in all cases of life.

Considering the ethics of Orthodox love for one's neighbor as a whole, it can be noted that its basis is concern, first of all, for one’s own soul and its improvement. The goal of Orthodox religious morality was to educate a person who is virtuous, merciful, conscientious, modest, respectful of people and who believes in the possibility of improving his soul, the world and people. It is precisely concern for one’s own soul that requires an Orthodox Christian to help his neighbor, show concern for him, and perform good deeds. In connection with this circumstance, the beggar is useful to the rich - he gives him the opportunity to do good, godly deeds, without which it is impossible to find heaven.

“Domostroy,” which spread in the 16th century, addresses issues of personal morality and contains certain requirements, including the requirement to participate in charity. A person must not only observe the basic commandments of the Christian religion, i.e. not to steal, not to slander, not to lie, but also to be “... welcoming and merciful to the poor...”. The moral norms and prescriptions of “Domostroy” are thus largely borrowed from earlier sources - the New Testament, the “Teachings of Vladimir Monomakh”, the collections “Bee” and “Chrysostom” and others and are a continuation and development of the Slavic ethical customs that developed in ancient times and traditions regarding assistance and mutual assistance. The ethics of helping one's neighbor in Rus' testifies to respect for people, self-respect and dignity of Russians.

During the years of reforms of Peter I and later, a large number of secular codes of conduct were published, which contain norms of both ethics and etiquette, not separated in content. Most of the rules set out in them do not apply to any specific category of persons (for example, friends, relatives, etc.), but to all people, regardless of their class, and are of a universal nature. It is considered very important in relations with people “to show respect to every person in general, no matter what tribe, faith and law he is, he is your neighbor.”

So, for example, “The Honest Mirror of Youth” requires young man modesty, courtesy, politeness, indicating respect for another person. And noble maidens should “try to find more good qualities and actions in people than bad ones, be tolerant and condescending,” consider it their duty to “protect innocence and even somewhat excuse the guilty, and not increase their weaknesses, and selflessly stand up for the absent, vilified and slandered."

Secular ethical codes emphasize the need to show sympathy for a person in trouble: “whoever takes part in the sorrows of his neighbors forces himself to love, and whoever is merciless cannot enjoy the name of a friend of humanity  ....” “The Path to Good Morality”, published in Moscow at the end of the 18th century, also calls for “charity, politeness, compassion and love of one’s neighbor” that adorns a person.

Following the traditions of the ethical teachings of the most revered saints in Russia, the secular ethical code, which was Domostroy, and the later codes of the 18th and 19th centuries, Russian people saw their moral duty in helping their neighbors. Many secular figures, including those canonized after death, were famous during their lifetime for their mercy and compassion for the poor. These were Juliania Lazarevskaya (Muromskaya), U. U. Osorina, F. P. Gaaz, F. M. Rtishchev, V. F. Sollogub, V. F. Odoevsky and many others; They not only provided private assistance to those in need, but also, by their example, encouraged others to do good.

The ethics of helping those in need finds its further development in the works of Russian philosophers.

So, for example, I. Brianchaninov, condemning an absent-minded way of life, refers to the holy fathers, who recognize it as the beginning of all evil. In his opinion, absent-mindedness is not such a harmless quality. It is intolerable for many reasons, including because “an absent-minded person is alien to love for his neighbor: he looks indifferently at the misfortune of people and easily places unbearable burdens on them,” which gives the right to call him not absent-minded, but merciless , while attentiveness is incompatible with frivolity and cruelty.

Most famous Russian philosophers, being themselves believers, linked their ethical concepts, including those related to helping the poor, with Orthodoxy as the basis of the worldview of the majority of their fellow citizens. P. Ya. Chaadaev in his letters speaks of the need to “find such a spiritual mood, soft and simple, which would be able to effortlessly combine with all the actions of the mind, with all the emotions of the heart, the idea of truth and goodness ", and the easiest way for this is to rely entirely on the religious feeling of the believer, since Orthodoxy carries within itself the enormous potential of humanism and mercy. Through charity, the thinker notes, hope is gained for the moral improvement of the benefactor himself, since “...no matter how ardent our desire to act for the common good, this abstract good imagined by us is only what we want for ourselves, and to eliminate ourselves We never succeed completely: in what we wish for others, we always take into account our own good. And therefore, the highest reason, expressing its law in human language, condescending to our weak nature, prescribed us only one thing: to do with others the way we want them to do with us.” Being a person who deeply feels injustice, P. Ya. Chaadaev speaks of altruistic consciousness and behavior as the basis of human happiness: “away from selfishness, away from selfishness. They kill happiness. Living for others means living for yourself. Goodwill, endless love for one’s own kind - this, believe me, is true bliss; there is no other way... do you want to be happy? So think as little as possible about your own well-being, take care of someone else’s ..." A person who cares only about his own well-being, who does not provide help and support to his neighbor, according to P. Ya. Chaadaev, is dead - his soul is dead.

N.G. Chernyshevsky connected a person’s desire to do good, to be useful, with his natural desire for pleasure: this “... is simply prescribed by reason, common sense, the need for pleasure; this goal is good. Only good deeds are calculated; Only he who is kind and only as good as he is reasonable is reasonable. ...If he is useful to people by the qualities of his own organism, by his spiritual qualities... then he cannot stop doing good to people...” N. G. Chernyshevsky considers a person’s desire for moral improvement, the use of his spiritual qualities for the benefit of people, to be natural and the most strong, durable and reliable in relation to the good and benefit brought to others and to himself. Even wealth, used for the benefit of others, cannot bring such good as the spiritual qualities of a person, which are enduring: a kind person cannot help but be kind, and this is the basis of his behavior and activities, his relationships with others. Doing good to others, helping people is rational, it is consistent with common sense and meets the natural needs of a person, and therefore is natural for him, as a quality determined by human nature and reinforced by the historical and social experience of generations of millions of people.

P.L. Lavrov speaks about the naturalness of doing good and the need for mutual assistance: “...study your actual benefit; Reduce suffering around you and in yourself: this is most beneficial for you. At the same time, he notes that only a few follow the principles of morality and justice - some due to a lack of understanding of the benefits of good, and some people due to the fact that they do not have the opportunity, due to their meager income, to take part in the fate of their neighbors. This, according to P. L. Lavrov, immeasurably increases the price of social progress, which contributes to the development of spirituality and mercy, sacrificed to the struggle for existence.

N.K. Mikhailovsky  in “Notes of a Layman” critically comprehends Haeckel’s thesis that society is the more perfect the more homogeneous, simpler and more dependent on each other its members are, and this dependence is based not only on the social division of labor. Dependence also has social roots: a person in society is dependent due to the fact that he exists in it and, therefore, must obey the rules that society establishes. However, according to Mikhailovsky, the connection between the perfection of the whole and the imperfection of its parts (i.e., individuals included in the community), which is valid for the animal world, becomes not so clear in relation to the human world - the more perfect the individuals who make up the society, the more perfect the society itself. From here N.K. Mikhailovsky concludes about the need for constant self-improvement for every person and helping others in their improvement. However, this improvement is impossible without the struggle of the individual with a society that strives to level personal qualities and destroy individuality, since the purpose of society is to serve the interests of the individual.

In the views of N.K. Mikhailovsky, man is recognized as the highest value of society - that is why society should serve man. However, man is also called to serve society: by serving society, he serves people, humanity. It is not the “simplicity” and “sameness” of the members of society, but, on the contrary, their perfection and improvement that are the makings of a better future.

V.S. Solovyov continued the tradition of many Russian philosophers, substantiating the point of view according to which immortality is impossible without the moral improvement of the individual. The process of separating man from the animal world, overcoming the animal essence, occurs in connection with his desire not only to live “according to nature,” that is, guided by animal instincts, but to live as he should, in accordance with conscience, which for man plays the role of law. The difficulty of the moral question, according to V.S. Solovyov, lies in the fact that, firstly, only prohibitions are established on what should not be done, but it is not said what should be done: “... even if you give him positive form, for example: help everyone, then here there is no positive indication of what should be done in order to truly and truly help everyone.” Secondly, the fulfillment of the moral law requires a person to constantly struggle with himself, with his essence, since the consciousness of duty in itself does not guarantee its fulfillment. The framework of the law does not determine the activities of a person striving for perfection. Morality perceived formally is not enough for a person. Your actions should be verified by the Gospel commandments, since only the ethical law of Christianity has a truly moral essence.

Unlike N.G. Chernyshevsky, V.S. Solovyov considers man to be inherently sinful (due to his biological, animal nature), but is convinced that by turning to God's help, a person can overcome his nature. The world is mired in evil, and only by renouncing one’s own will and relying on the will of God can a person become kinder and more perfect. This is a feat that a person must consciously accomplish. Faith in God, according to Solovyov, is faith in goodness, in justice, which neither nature nor reason provides.

Thus, the ethical traditions of charity of the Russian people are rooted in the views of the ancient Slavs, the works of Orthodox theologians and secular philosophers, and in their essence the approaches of both do not contradict each other. The traditions of Christian ethics, developed over the centuries and disseminated by Orthodox educators, found responses in various segments of the population and subsequently had a huge influence on the ethical and philosophical works of secular scientists and on the creativity of writers.

For spiritual authors, the main thing in the ethics of charity is strict observance of the commandments, and first of all the commandment “love thy neighbor.” Such Christian love is the basis of charitable activities, on the one hand, and the guarantee of posthumous reward for good deeds, on the other. Merciful deeds are performed primarily for oneself, for one’s soul, for the sake of moral and spiritual improvement, and not for external effect.

Secular authors, despite all the differences in approaches, mainly support and continue to develop the same idea: good must be done first of all for one’s own soul, for its improvement. Living for others means living for yourself, living in peace with your soul and conscience, and therefore doing good deeds, helping people is useful and rational. However, in the views of secular philosophers, the idea of human value is more clearly visible. If for Orthodoxy a person is a servant of God, created from dust and therefore, first of all, fulfilling his duty to God, then for secular philosophers, despite the fact that most of them were believers, a person is valuable as an independent person who has the right to personal happiness, improvement and freedom of action and fulfilling duty first of all to oneself.

During the Soviet period, society's views on social work (more precisely, on social security) underwent changes.

Firstly, it was believed that in a state with the most humane social system, in a planned economy, all citizens are sufficiently socially protected, as a result of which additional measures, such as, for example, a charity system, was not required.

Secondly, it was necessary to resolve the issue of providing for certain categories of citizens who do not have the opportunity to support themselves. Moreover, the state considered its first duty to take full care of such citizens, and therefore the charitable activities of private individuals, from the point of view of official authorities, were unnecessary and degrading to the dignity of the individual - every person in the Soviet state had the right to attention to himself and care side of the state.

At the same time, one cannot assume that charity has disappeared completely. Patronage assistance became widespread, provided mainly to small organizations and institutions - kindergartens, schools, medical institutions, etc. Private charity also existed during these years - for example, it was considered normal to help elderly neighbors, the disabled, and sick people. Giving alms also took place in the Soviet state, although it was not widespread and was not welcomed.

In a post-industrial society, in the course of integration processes gradually covering the entire world community, an understanding of man as a complex, integrated, integral personality, in one way or another, is being established to a greater or lesser extent in social, economic, cultural, political, military, religious and other areas of activity. Man and his good, helping him in self-realization are attracting increasing attention of social thought. The personality becomes the center of philosophical research of many thinkers - sociologists, psychologists, political scientists, philosophers, and his well-being, happiness and life, the conditions most favorable for his existence and comprehensive development, are the most significant subject of study and research.

A gradual, slow, fundamental reassessment of the goals of modern civilization and a rethinking of traditional values inevitably occurs. The highest value of society is officially proclaimed a person - a person, regardless of his material wealth, ability to work, state of health, education, intellectual abilities, marital status, gender and age, race and nationality, views and beliefs, etc. Norms of coexistence and the activities of people in society require the provision of adequate assistance and support to every person who needs it, assistance based on love for a person, respect for his rights, the principles of humanism and social justice.

Requirements for the moral character of a person and citizen, based on traditional universal humanistic ideas, include the ability to love people and selflessly do good, since this meets both social and personal needs, the principle of social justice and humanism.

Currently, professional social work, as an integral part of the life of the state and society of a market economy in the Russian Federation, is going through a period of formation. The Constitution proclaims the person to be the main value of Russian society. The state, being the main subject of social work, assumes primary responsibility for the well-being of each citizen, granting him certain rights and declaring their implementation, but it also encourages charitable activities of citizens and organizations aimed at providing comprehensive assistance to those in need, since the well-being of each person is care of both the state, and the person himself, and his environment. Concern for the welfare of everyone and the public good can become the basis on which a new society can be built, a society where each individual will have the opportunity for full self-realization.

Professional social work in Russia dates back its origins to the benevolence, compassion, mercy of the ancient Slavs, to Christian charity, to the traditions of helping the poor by secular philanthropists. Based on the moral laws of helping people, which constitute the essence of the Russian people, it is called upon to develop and continue all the best that is characteristic of Russians in caring for the well-being of people.

PROFESSIONAL ETHICS OF SOCIAL

EMPLOYEE

Ethics(Greek ethika, from ethos - custom) - philosophical science, the object of study of which is morality, its development, norms and role in society. Ethics is one of the most ancient theoretical disciplines that arose as part of philosophy. To denote the philosophical doctrine of morality and morality, Aristotle proposed the term “ethics”.

As a branch of philosophy, ethics is called upon to solve, at a theoretical level, issues of morality and morality that arise before a person in his daily activities. Because the theoretical knowledge has the most direct relation to practice; it in a certain way substantiates the practical activity of a person.

Human labor activity is the most typical and comprehensive example of practical activity, in connection with which we can talk about the phenomenon professional ethics - one of the fundamental theoretical foundations of any professional activity, which is the science of professional morality as a set of ideals and values, ideas about what should be, ethical principles and norms of behavior that reflect the essence of the profession and ensure relationships between people that develop in the process of work and stem from the content of their professional activities. Professional ethics, at the same time, is the moral self-awareness of a professional group, its psychology and ideology  .

Professional ethics as a set of stable norms and rules that a worker must follow in his activities arose in ancient times, when it could not be a separate, isolated branch of knowledge. The first ethical requirements for the actions of a specialist can be found in the ancient Egyptian manuscript “Instructions of the city commander and vizier Ptah-hettep,” dating back to the 3rd millennium BC. Among other requirements for the employee, the need for conscientious and high-quality performance of their duties is indicated, since such an attitude towards work is the key to a future high position and wealth. However, experts attribute the emergence of the first holistic professional ethical complexes to the period of the craft division of labor, i.e., to the period of the emergence craft workshops in the XI-XII centuries. It was during this period that historians state that ethical requirements appeared in shop regulations, regulating attitudes towards the profession, work, fellow workers, etc.

However, representatives of a number of professions that were of vital importance for all members of society, earlier than others, realized the need for ethical regulation of their activities, and therefore such professional ethical codes as the “Hippocratic Oath” and some others were formed somewhat earlier. Basically, these are professions related directly to a person or to the conditions of his life, professions with a high degree of individualization of work, for example, teaching, medical work.

As F. Engels noted, each profession has its own morality. A profession develops in its holders not only professional skills, but also certain personality traits and attitudes towards the content of their activities. Professional ethics underlies all other aspects of professional activity, since the morality of a professional group (professional morality) is an integral part of the morality of society, and morality itself is one of the most ancient regulators of behavior and actions, the interaction of people, including in the professional sphere.

The emergence of professional ethics precedes the creation scientific theories about it, since professional ethics, which initially arises as a phenomenon of everyday consciousness, subsequently develops on the basis of comprehension and generalization of the practice of representatives of a professional group. These generalizations are systematized in the form of codes (written and unwritten), containing not only ethical requirements for the content and results of activities, but also for the relationships that arise in the process of activity, as well as conclusions drawn on the basis of generalizations. Thus, professional ethics is not only the science of professional morality, but also the moral self-awareness of the total professional group, its ideology and psychology.

Professional ethics, like ethics in general, are not developed, but are developed gradually in the process of everyday joint activities of people. Professional ethics systematizes the experience accumulated in the process of historical practice, characteristic of a given type of activity, generalizes it and improves it as this type of activity improves. Therefore, professional ethics can be considered as a type of general morality, which carries specific features determined by the type and type of activity - that is, it is an applied scientific discipline that studies professional morality. At the same time, it can be considered as an applied theory of morality existing in a professional environment.

In everyday practice, professional ethics is a set of standards of behavior for specialists. Standards of professional ethics are subject to change under the influence of both external and internal factors in relation to the profession. They directly, at every moment of time, influence the behavior of specialists, prompting them to act in a certain way. The main objectives of professional ethics are to influence the consciousness of a specialist in order to improve him as an individual and as a professional and to promote the most complete and effective solution of professional problems. In general, professional ethics is the application of general, theoretical ethics to certain types professional activity.

Social work, as a special type of professional activity, has a specific, unique set of ideals and values that developed in the process of developing the principles and norms of behavior of specialists. Being a specialized activity, social work contains unique situations and contradictions that must be resolved in the process of activity itself and which are often the subject of this activity. This circumstance makes it necessary to adhere to special, more stringent moral principles and norms in activities.

In their practical activities, specialists need not only moral guidelines that determine the general, main direction of their activities, but also the rules of everyday activity, without which it is impossible to implement moral norms and principles. Therefore, the ethical standards of social work reflect the basic requirements and criteria for the behavior and actions of a social worker, which, with all their diversity, are dictated by the specific conditions and content of his work.

Ethics in social work is not the final product, but one of the integral components of everyday activities, along with the theoretical justification of the need for action, the legally provided opportunity to act, the determination of the most effective way to solve the problem, its economic support and the organization of implementation of the decision made. Deep knowledge of the norms and principles of professional ethics, strict, creative application of them in everyday activities helps the social worker to cooperate with clients, their loved ones, colleagues, representatives of public, governmental and non-governmental organizations and institutions.

Social work ethics is based on moral standards(Latin norma - rule, sample; one of the simplest forms of moral requirement, acting as an element of moral relations and a form of moral consciousness ), accepted by society as one of the most important regulators of joint activity and existence, and on those professional values that constitute the essence of social work. An ethical approach to the professional activities of a social worker allows us to return to ethical standards the imperative meaning that is inherent in them, but which has been ignored for a long time, and to increase the individual and collective responsibility of specialists for their actions, to raise the significance and authority of the professional activities of each social worker, the entire system social protection of the population.

Professional ethics of social work is not an exclusive regulator of the behavior of specialists that contradicts other mechanisms. Its norms and principles serve the same purposes as the requirements of the legal framework or technological process in social work. On the contrary, the ethics of social work requires specialists and their teams to serve the interests of society and the profession, clients and their groups. The professional ethics of a social worker prescribes the search for reserves, the use of all possible types of resources - from social to personal resources of both the social worker himself and his client; however, this is permissible only for socially and professionally approved purposes, but in no case for narrow corporate or personal selfish interests.

Today, for social work, the question of the need to determine ethical criteria for the responsibility of each social worker for his professional activities is becoming increasingly important, which requires the creation of a unified approach to the establishment of moral principles and norms, their unambiguous understanding, and the development of a unified system of values and ideals.

The problem of collective responsibility of social workers is no less important. Any professional group, especially if it creates its own professional association, whether it realizes it or not, strives to maintain and preserve its own narrow professional interests - for example, increasing the prestige and status of the profession, receiving subsidies for the development of professional activities, etc. However, the implementation of these interests will be justified only if it flows in line with the decision of general professional substantive and social problems. Therefore, one of the main tasks of professional ethics of social work should be considered the desire to prevent a contradiction between corporate interests and the goals and objectives of professional activity, as well as the interests of society and each of its members.

Thus, object the study of social work ethics is the professional morality of specialists, and subject - ethical relations, ethical consciousness and ethical actions of social workers arising in the process of work.

Purpose ethics of social work is to ensure and maintain socially approved content and essence of professional activity, and task - normative regulation of relations, behavior and actions of individual representatives of a professional group and their associations, the formation of an appropriate ethical consciousness of specialists in the social sphere.

Basic ethical relations in social work, which arise in the process of professional ethical activity as a set of dependencies and connections, consist in achieving public and personal benefits by transforming the “person - environment” system. These relationships arise between social workers as members of a team, between social workers and their clients, between social workers and the social environment of clients, between social workers and various institutions, organizations, individuals with whom social workers contact about providing assistance to clients. Finally, these are the relationships that arise between the institution of social work as one of the state structures and other state organizations, the state as a whole and society.

Ethical relationships in social work exist in the form requirements, the relations presented by the subjects to each other in terms of fulfilling professional duties and duties; moral principles underlying social work and subordinating all activities; moral qualities, which subjects of social activity must possess and actualize in their work; permanent self-control specialists in their activities.

Ethical consciousness a social worker is a reflection of his social existence and activities that arise in the process of professional relations. This consciousness is a subjective reflection of morality, since objective social necessity and social needs are reflected in the consciousness of a specialist as ideas about proper behavior and actions. This special form of awareness by a specialist of social necessity receives a specific moral justification: behavior and activity are no longer considered from the point of view of their necessity, but from the point of view of their moral value. The highest measure of the value of an action is the good of society and clients of social work, and therefore, from a moral point of view, of the social worker himself. Because of this, the professional activity of a particular social worker, from a moral point of view, is a benefit not only because it is necessary for society or clients, but also because it is necessary for the social worker himself, since it provides him with the opportunity to benefit and thereby realize his own moral principles.

Ethical actions. Social work, like any activity, is characterized by certain structural elements that can be assessed from the standpoint of morality and morality. A social worker operates in a value-oriented world, where every action, goal, motive, means to achieve a goal, or even intention can be assessed in terms of compliance with its moral standards, that is, the ideas of society or microsociety about good and evil.

Goals. The highest goal and measure of morality and activity can only be the good of the client and society. The goal of an activity is always an ideal image of a future real result. The goal that a social worker sets for himself when taking action can be generally expressed by the formula: “to help solve problems and improve the client’s living conditions.” The client, as a rule, formulates his goal more specifically. However, the goal set by the client is not always achievable - this can be influenced by factors such as the capabilities of the social protection system and a specific social service, the objective value of the final result for the client, the ethics of the goal and other factors. At the same time, the social worker, assessing the ethical acceptability of the goal, planning specific actions to solve the client’s problems, takes personal responsibility. If a social worker assesses the possible value of the work results for the client, his social environment, for society as a whole as negative, and considers it possible not to take action to achieve this goal or change the goal, he must carefully argue his opinion and prove its correctness to the client .

Motivation. Any person correlates reality, be it objects, phenomena or actions and actions, with his own spiritual world. A social worker always perceives his activities from the point of view of not only universal or professional values, but also based on his own value system, his own concepts of morality and morality. The actions of a social worker include specifically moral motives for his professional activity: the desire to do good, to provide help to those in need, subordination to a sense of duty - human and professional, the need to achieve certain ideals, and the implementation of value orientations. For a social worker, due to his professional duties, the main content of his profession and a significant end result is achieving the client’s benefit and solving his problems.

However, it should be noted that social work currently attracts not only people whose life’s work has become helping those in need. Due to various external reasons, people come to social work seeking to realize their own interests, and not to help people. Such activity is also possible, but it is usually less effective, since external motivation, for example, a convenient work schedule, salary, as well as any other external benefits, is much weaker than internal motivation.

This is especially true in relation to social work, where internal motivation, that is, internal motivations for activity, is extremely important. As a rule, the content of the work performed, the process of work activity and its final result are most often considered as motives. If a social worker as an individual feels the need to be needed by people, if he is ready to protect the weak, if he rejoices in the well-being of his client and is proud of his successes, then we can say that positive motivation takes place. Therefore, a sense of community with the client, responsibility for his fate, the need to be useful and do good are the desired motives for the behavior and activities of a social worker, which should develop in the course of his training and practical activities.

Legitimization . Legitimation is understood as the legal basis on which a social worker (group of specialists) or a social service officially relies in the foundations of its activities. First of all, these are, as a rule, the laws of the Russian Federation relating to social work, the job description for an individual employee and the Regulations on the social protection unit or on the social service - the entire regulatory framework regulating the activities of the institution, social protection bodies and their employees.

A document legitimizing the activities of social services can be a federal or local social program, an order or instructional letter from a higher social protection body or federal and local authorities, their decision, etc. In any case, this is a document whose content must meet the criteria morality and in no case can contradict the general goals and objectives that are common to all social services and the social protection system as a whole, and current legislation. Justification for activities, both in form and content, may differ from goals due to various objective reasons.

In addition to official documents regulating the activities of social services and specific social workers, there must be a clear and precise agreement between the specialist and his client on the nature and goals of their interaction, the procedure for joint actions. This may be an agreement concluded by the client or on behalf of the client with the social service, a statement or other document sent by the client (or a person entitled to represent his interests) to the social service.

Facilities. The question of the relationship between the goal and the means to achieve it is one of the key questions of ethics. To achieve his goals, the social worker uses all legal means available to him - from material to spiritual. When choosing funds, you must be guided by ethical principles, the main one of which is “do no harm.” A social worker must foresee what consequences may result not only from achieving the goal he has set, but also from using the means he has chosen to achieve the goal - “the use of destructive means leads to transformation of the goal itself”  . Despite the fact that the goal set by a social worker may be highly moral, the inconsistency of the means and their immorality can erase all the results of the activity.

For example, it is known that social work is strapped for cash due to insufficient funding. However, this does not mean that a social worker can provide assistance to his low-income clients by expropriating funds from their wealthier fellow citizens and thus playing the role of a “noble robber” or allowing deception and committing dishonest acts. Even if, in accordance with the current criminal legislation, such a social worker cannot be held accountable, his activities will receive a negative assessment in the public consciousness, which will then be transferred to the entire institute of social work. Therefore, for a social worker, actions on the principle of permissiveness, even in the name of a great noble goal, are unacceptable. To achieve the set goals, it is necessary to choose only legalized, socially approved means that have high moral value.

Actions. The social worker's decision to take action must be based on an understanding and knowledge of how the action will benefit the client and society. Actions must be carried out on the basis of respect for the client and those in his social environment, concern for their dignity and genuine well-being. Responsibility for developing a plan or program of ethically acceptable actions to achieve the goal always rests entirely with the social worker. Despite the fact that the client is a full participant in the discussion of options for solving the problem and even has the right of “veto” (i.e., he may not agree to the solution option proposed by the social worker), it is the social worker, as a specialist with the necessary knowledge and authority, who makes the decision. determines the course of action and, therefore, bears responsibility for them. Ethics requires that a specialist always inform his client about all stages of the actions he is taking and explain their essence, talk about all the significant points that may affect the achievement of the goal, as well as the client’s desire to achieve this specific goal.

Final result. The result is the natural expected product of an activity. When starting work, a social worker, already at the goal-setting stage, imagines what exactly he wants and can get upon completion of work. However, as a rule, the actual final result differs from the planned result, i.e., from the set goal, since the goal is an ideal version of the expected result. How different the real is from the ideal depends on both objective and subjective reasons. In any case, the social worker must take measures to neutralize as much as possible the negative effect of the subjective factor, that is, mobilize himself and the client, attract all the necessary resources of society to complete the task. He should also be well aware of possible objective obstacles to achieving the goal and, in a timely manner, during the development of the action plan, provide options for action if they arise.

However, success must also “fit” within the boundaries of ethical standards, and the social worker must constantly monitor the compliance of what is planned with what is actually expected. He should not begin work if its results are likely to offend his moral sense, and if the negative consequences call into question his efforts. This applies not only to his own actions, but also to the actions of his colleagues, which affect him as a representative of a given structure or an entire system.

In general, social work ethics includes the following levels:

Application of internal ethical standards to all types of interactions within the system: social worker - client, social worker - social worker, social worker - team of a social institution, social service - social service, etc. At this level, the formation of the very actions and relationships that arise in the system and their assessment from the point of view of representatives of the professional group;

Assessment of the behavior and actions of specific social workers and social services from the point of view of ethical standards of a universal nature accepted by society as moral norms. At this level, social workers and their actions are viewed and assessed as if from the outside, by clients and their social environment. At the same time, at this level, the behavior and actions of social workers are also influenced by influences that shape them from the point of view of the expectations of clients and their environment;

Assessing social work as a whole as a social institution, within which social workers are included in a wide range of external relationships with any structures, from the point of view of its (social institution) social expediency and morality. This level includes an assessment of social usefulness, the need for social work for society and its objective recognition by society, a comparison of the ethical content and external manifestations of professional activity from the point of view of society's expectations.

Ethical assessment at any level is objective-subjective in nature. The subjectivity of the assessment is due to the fact that the assessment is carried out by people and it is not always possible to exclude the personal factor. So, for example, in the case of a client’s assessment of social work, his opinion largely depends on how fully the social worker managed to solve his personal problem, and the client does not always take into account truly objective possibilities for such a solution.

Assessment by society may also not be completely objective, since society is socially heterogeneous; Not all citizens have comprehensive information about the institute of social work, its capabilities and needs. The assessment of social work as a social institution by society and the state, as a rule, may differ. The state, when creating an institute of social work, proceeds from the potential of this institution, which can be realized in the future under certain circumstances; for society, the greatest interest is not the potential, but the final result, and society, of course, is not always aware of the conditions under which the activities of the social work institute become optimal.

Moral norms that regulate professional behavior and relationships that arise in the process of professional activity perform certain functions in social work. The functions of professional work ethics are determined by many factors, the main of which are the essence, content and orientation of the profession. /

The main functions of social work ethics can be considered the following:

evaluative- makes it possible to evaluate, from the point of view of compliance with moral norms and principles, the behavior and actions, goals and objectives of the participants in the process, their aspirations and intentions, their chosen means of achieving the goal and the final results;

regulatory- stems from the need to regulate the behavior and actions of a social worker in various formal and informal situations so that they harmoniously fit into the activities of the entire professional group and correspond to the essence of the profession;

organizational- serves to improve the organization of social work, requiring participants in the process of activity to creatively fulfill their duties and professional duty;

manager- serves as a means of social management of the behavior and actions of a social worker during the process in the interests of the case;

motivational- serves as a means of forming socially and professionally approved motives for activity;

coordinating- ensures cooperation of all participants in the process of providing social assistance to the client, based on trust and mutual assistance;

regulating- directs and conditions the choice by a social worker or social service of the goals, methods and means of providing assistance to the client;

reproductive- allows you to reproduce the actions of social workers and the relationships of social workers among themselves and with clients on the basis of morality and morality;

educational- serves as a means of educating and improving the personality of both the social worker and his client and the client’s social environment;

communicative- serves as a means of communication between specialists and their clients;

optimizing- contributes to increasing the efficiency and quality of social work, increasing the status of the profession in society, and the level of its morality;

stabilizing- contributes to the stabilization of relationships among social workers, between social workers and clients and their loved ones, between social workers and representatives of various institutions;

rationalizing- facilitates the social worker’s choice of goals, methods and means of influence, the choice of the most effective and acceptable solution from the point of view of professional morality;

preventive- protects and warns the social worker from actions and actions that are harmful to the client and society;

prognostic- allows you to predict the actions and behavior of individual social workers and their teams, their ethical development;

resolution of contradictions- contributes to the elimination, resolution and smoothing of contradictions that arise in the process of social work between its subjects and objects;

informational- introduces social workers to the value system of professional social work and professional morality;

social- contributes to the creation of conditions favorable for the implementation of social work in society;

socializing- serves the purpose of introducing the social worker to the prevailing system of values and morality in society.

The variety of functions of a social worker’s professional morality is due to its high social significance.

Ethically oriented social work connects what is with what should be on the basis of morality and morality. It does not limit itself to abstract norms and values, but is considered in practical situations, teaches to see the context of a specialist’s behavior and actions, going beyond purely practical, immediate production interests, i.e., it helps to compare the objective and the subjective, the absolute and the situationally determined. Social work ethics studies the behavior of a specialist regarding value orientations, evaluates his motives and the results of his actions from the point of view of good and evil. It is subject to one of the most important ethical postulates: every social worker is responsible for the evil and misfortune that he knows about and which he can prevent.

Issues of social responsibility most directly confront social workers when practical work with clients. To the extent that changes occur with the client or in the social environment, the situation itself changes, and therefore its ethical assessment. The implementation of ethical assessment is possible at various levels - from the level of an individual client to the level of the entire society. In connection with the assessment of activities, it is legitimate to raise the question of criteria of morality, in accordance with which this assessment is made.

Under criterion of morality(morality) is understood as a set of ideas about good and evil, justice as the content of moral requirements for professional behavior and actions. The criteria of morality in social work are twofold - on the one hand, they contain general requirements for the actions of a social worker that have general social significance, on the other hand, they contain requirements for the effectiveness and quality of social work itself. This approach to defining the criteria of morality does not allow them to be reduced to narrow professional interests and at the same time does not make it possible to ignore the general humanistic values of the profession. A number of criteria can be identified on this basis.

Promoting social progress. This criterion is characteristic of all types of professional activity, and each profession makes its contribution to social progress. A social worker, as a professional, is obliged to promote the self-realization of his client and increase his personal potential. Accordingly, increasing the potential of the individual will lead to increasing the potential of the entire society, which will contribute to social progress.

Formation of a highly moral personality. In the process of social work, the personality of not only the social worker is formed, but also, with the help of his influence, the personality of the client. In this regard, only those actions of a social worker that lead to the formation of a highly moral personality can be considered moral - both himself as a specialist and his client.

Social expediency. Social work in general and the activities of each individual social worker or service are guided by the criterion of social expediency, based on the needs and capabilities of society. It is society that determines which categories of citizens and under what conditions become clients of social services, and what type of services can be offered to them.

Cooperation of process participants. Only such activity of a social worker can be considered moral, which leads to the active cooperation of participants in the process (colleagues, client, his relatives), which, in turn, has a positive effect on the results of interaction, increases the authority of both the social worker and social work in general, and client.

Ensuring a comprehensive positive impact on participants in the process. A social worker has a multifaceted influence in the course of his professional activities. By solving (or helping to solve) the client’s problems, he simultaneously influences the material conditions of his life, his psyche, and regardless of what kind of help the client requires and receives. The social worker’s colleagues are also influenced - he can serve as an example for them. This has a positive impact on the entire society, which is interested in the maximum effectiveness of social work.

The criteria for the morality of social work can serve not only to assess the activities of specialists in the field of social work and social work itself as a specific type of professional activity, but also to assess the moral requirements for social work themselves. They make it possible to distinguish between narrow professional norms that express the interests of social workers as representatives of the profession, and moral norms that are of value and interest for the whole society. Actually, the second group of professional ethical standards of social work is the moral basis that led to the emergence of the profession of social worker in our society.

Social work is an activity carried out in complex formal and informal situations. At the same time, the social worker must take into account that he bears an ethical responsibility to the client, his social environment and society from the moment the decision is made until the final result is received in its entirety. In his work, he must be guided by the principles of professional ethics - the most general requirements that express the main direction of a specialist’s behavior in relation to a particular subject of relations arising in the process of social work.

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