Key Concepts of Museology - ICOM

distinction is essential because of its
consequences for museums, since
the museum is an institution, that is
to say a phenomenon which exists by
common agreement and which can
be altered.
Within the museum, ethics can
be defi ned as the discussion process
aimed at identifying the basic values
and principles on which the work of
the museum relies. Ethics lead to the
drawing up of principles set out in
museums’ codes of ethics, of which
the ICOM code is one example.
1. Ethics are aimed at guiding a
museum’s conduct. In a moral vision
of the world, reality is subject to a
moral order which determines the
place occupied by each person. This
order constitutes a perfection towards
which each being must strive by fulfi
lling his function perfectly, and this
is known as virtue (Plato, Cicero,
etc.). By contrast, the ethical vision of
the world is based on a chaotic and
disorganised world, left to chance
and without any fi xed bearings.
Faced with this universal disorder,
individuals are the only judge of what
is best for them (Nietzsche, Deleuze);
they alone must decide for themselves
what is good or bad. Between
these two radical positions that are
moral order and ethical disorder, a
middle road is conceivable in so far
as it is possible for people to agree
freely among themselves to recognise
common values (such as the principle
of respect for human beings). Again
this is an ethical point of view which
on the whole governs the way modern
democracies determine values. This
fundamental distinction still infl uences
the division between two types
of museums or two ways of operating
even today. Some very traditional
museums such as fi ne arts museums
seem to follow a pre-established
order: their collections appear to
be sacred and defi ne a model of
conduct by different actors (curators
and visitors), and a crusading spirit
in the way they carry out their tasks.
On the other hand, some museums,
perhaps more attentive to the practical
reality of people’s lives, do not
consider themselves subject to absolute
values and continuously reassess
them. These may be museums
more in touch with real life, such
as anthropology museums, striving
to grasp an ethnic reality which is
often fl uctuating, or so-called “social
museums” for which questions and
practical choices (political or social)
are more important than the religion
of collections.
2. While the distinction between
ethical and moral is quite clear in
French and Spanish, the term in
English is more open to confusion
(éthique in French can be translated
as ethic or also as moral in
English). Thus the English version
of the ICOM Code of Ethics (2006)
in appears in French as Code de
déontologie (Código de deontología
in Spanish). The vision expressed in
the code is, however clearly prescriptive
and normative (and very similar
to that expressed in the codes of the
UK Museums Association and the
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