This paper tries to contribute to the clarification of the problems concerning professional
justifications from an ideal-typical point of view, which inevitably implies that it doesn’t
deal with real problems and their solutions. The starting point is Freidsons (2001) idealtypical
distinction between professionalism, market and bureaucracy. Abbotts (1988)
analysis of professionalism will be used to convert Freidsons distinction of power into a
distinction of expertise. By making use of Savornin Lohman & Raaff (2001) the
distinction is extended by two more logics, the public and the private one. It will be
shown that all five logics rest on different action values and that these differing values
can cause serious misunderstandings concerning professional justifications.
