As commonly understood professional ethics consists of shared duties and episodic dilemmas--the responsibilities incumbent on all members of specific professions joined together with the dilemmas that arise when these responsibilities conflict. Martin challenges this consensus paradigm as he rethinks professional ethics to include personal commitments and ideals of which many are not mandatory. Using specific examples from a wide range of professions including medicine law high school teaching journalism engineering and ministry he explores how personal commitments motivate guide and give meaning to work.