History of Free Professions / from Artes Liberales to our Times

Abstract

The knowledge of the development of free professions from Roman artes liberales to the modern ones certainly highlights their current position. That history reveals their amazing ability of transformation, adjustment and survival. An overall and consistent legal defnition of artes liberals as a concept of Roman law is impossible, because of the deep changes it underwent over the Roman history. The latter resulted from the changes in the Roman attitude to labour, suppression of sacral in favour of layman characteristics of knowledge as such, rise in social status of those engaged in intellectual labour, cultural development, and changes in the administration’s attitude towards workers in artes liberales. The profession as a new notion arises with the medieval universities that provided a specifc and socially acknowledged education. For its part, that logically led to the emergence of professional-occupational organizations, which additionally confrmed the monopoly of activity of individuals with professional, university education. Since most of them belonged to aristocracy, the real function of the formal system of professional education was more to reproduce the existing social hierarchies than to promote specialistic education and professional superiority of graduates. With its separation of aristocracy and profession, the modern age brought about the crucial change in the notion of profession. In its focus was the active social role - i.e. social engagement based upon possession of a specifc and socially ackowledged knowledge. The history of free profession that was to end in its modern concept could be seen in following phases: compusory education resulting in the emergence of universities; formation of professional associations (local or national); legal protection of the profession; and emergence of the ethic code, as the fnal step in the professionalization process. Though generally acceptable, this chronological order is slightly different in some European states.