Ethics and museology
The assessment of the purpose of museological understanding involves the question of accountability and consequently the question of ethics. Professionalism and ethics are closely connected. Museum ethics is a form of professional ethics. Professional ethics is the offshoot of general moral norms adopted by members of the same profession, who may be identified as a group. Strictly speaking ethics is concerned with theory, that is, contemplating as to what is right and just in a given situation. Professional ethics presupposes the existence of an identifiable profession, but at the same time contributes to define a profession. This chapter is devoted to the history of codes of ethics in museum field and main problems connected with ethical problems in museum work.