Foreword The question of why we should sympathize with other human beings, why we should not harm them, but should try to live with them in a certain harmony, and therefore help them altruistically in case of emergency, is certainly one of the basic ethical questions that Western philosophy has been intensively addressing for the last two centuries. At the same time, this question was already present in Plato's thinking, and for many centuries various religious and ideological beliefs dealt with it. This is one of the most basic questions that we as people have to deal with every day in our lives, whether at work, at school, or in our personal relationships. A question like this cannot be avoided - if we want to continue to call ourselves moral beings. In general, it can be said that there are basically two opposite types of answers to this question, where each of us has the right to choose which type of answers he will prefer in his thinking and behavior. In any case, both types of answers touch on the question of our identity - that is, who we are to ourselves (who we are in our own eyes) and who we are to others (that is, what mask we put on in relation to others), which then colors the nature of the explanation of why it pays to be ethically prudent.
One of these types of answers is based on the basic hypotheses of contemporary biology, according to which we are actually just colonies of intensively cooperating (in a certain way unconscious and unintelligent) primitive prehistoric bacteria, which in the process of evolution within the framework of their common "project" (that is, the creation and reproduction of a living organism) created a collective illusion of one self-aware self. The second answer is based on the idea that our subjective selves are the result of the creative act of a certain supposed transcendental being, to whom we have a closer or broader relationship, which is not free of certain obligations arising from it. However, the question of justice is equally important for us, without which the answer to the opening question cannot be complete. From experience, we know or suspect that our compassion should have certain limits, so that a certain healthy harmonious balance in our relationships with others is not disturbed, i.e. so that we do not unnecessarily disturb the boundaries of our autonomy as solidarity or helpers, or as those who receive help under certain circumstances. Whether we support one or the other type of explanation of the question of our identity and our obligations to others, we find that these answers are ultimately not radically different from each other, even if they are not identical. In any case, they represent a certain challenge for us to constant personal reflection of the nature of our behavior in relations with other people, and whether we believe one or the other answer, only in the process of this constant and persistent self-reflection do we have a chance to become better people.
The question of compassion, social solidarity and justice is also one of the basic questions of social work, a field of ambiguous nature, whose professional activities can sometimes be described as "help" and sometimes as "control" (or even as "normalization"). Even in the field of social work, it is still the same question of how to maintain harmonious relations between all members of society, when in order to maintain a certain balance, we can consider limiting ourselves to a certain extent for the benefit of others in need, but also limiting the autonomy of those who disrupt this balance with their activities. We are therefore looking for a reasonable answer to the question of setting boundaries and obligations of autonomous human subjects towards each other and towards the human community in general. During this search, however, the center of gravity of the questioning of social workers shifts from the question of the basis of human moral behavior to more concrete topics, specific to the field of daily practice of social workers.
It is precisely these topics of social workers that are dealt with in the presented collection of papers from the VI conference. Hradec Social Work Days, dedicated to issues of social work ethics. In this collection, the reader will find contributions mapping almost all areas of the field of social work and their frequent and typical ethical dilemmas. In addition to them, however, this collection also contains more theoretical reflections on the professional ethics of our field, as well as papers addressing the broader social contexts in which we move as social workers and whose (very often changing) values influence us in our work. All these contributions have the potential to find their readers, who can serve as inspiration for their practice. Hereby, we would like to thank all the authors who participated in the creation of this collection with their contributions and shared their experiences with us.
We believe that this sharing of experience makes sense. If we stated above that we become better people as a constant reflection of our behavior in relationships with our close and unknown neighbors, the same applies to us as social workers. We can certainly believe that by reflecting not only our dearly acquired experience, but above all by reflecting the experience of our close and unknown colleagues, we become real professionals. Miroslav Kappl, Martin Smutek, Zuzana Truhlářová (editors), December 2009
Title: Ethics of social work Editors: Mgr. Miroslav Kappl; PhDr. Martin Smutek, Ph.D.; Mgr. Zuzana Truhlářová, Ph.D. Cover and typesetting: PhDr. Martin Smutek, Ph.D. Year and place of publication: 2010, Hradec Králové Edition: first Load: 250 Published by Gaudeamus publishing house, University of Hradec Králové as its 979th publication. ISBN 978-80-7435-037-5