Professions can create forms of ethical conversation that are impossible between a lonely individual and a distant government. If members of professi… - Timothy Snyder

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Professions can create forms of ethical conversation that are impossible between a lonely individual and a distant government. If members of professions think of themselves as groups with common interests, with norms and rules that oblige them at all times, then they can gain confidence and indeed a certain kind of power. Professional ethics must guide us precisely when we are told that the situation is exceptional. Then there is no such thing as “just following orders.

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About Timothy Snyder

Timothy David Snyder (born 1969) is an American historian specializing in the history of Central and Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union, and the Holocaust.

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Alternative Names: Timothy David Snyder Timothy D. Snyder T.D. Snyder Tim Snyder
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Professional ethics must guide us precisely when we are told that the situation is exceptional. Then there is no such thing as “just following orders.” If members of the professions confuse their specific ethics with the emotions of the moment, however, they can find themselves saying and doing things that they might previously have thought unimaginable.

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