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Notes
Vivian chose the reverse alphabetical listing of authors Wells, Jones, and Davis for a political (or pedagogical) reason.: it made the engineer the first author, suggesting that the engineer was not a mere add-on (as she was not) and that, therefore, the module might have something to do with “real engineering” (which it certainly did).
The other two managers were Jerald Mason and Joseph Kilminster.
For the first few years, Vivian co-taught this course with an engineer, eventually learning enough about engineers and engineering to do it on her own. She coached me, of course, but most of her coaching consisted of telling me not to worry. Watching other philosophers start to teach engineering ethics, I have come to think “Don’t worry” the most important lesson. Another lesson is, of course, that engineering is both hard in its details and (generally) simple in its main ideas. A third lesson is that engineering students will tolerate a lot from a philosopher who appreciates what engineers do.
This is now the Foundation Center. For more information, see: foundationcenter.org (accessed February 28, 2017).
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Hollander, R.D., Davis, M., Elliott, D. et al. Remembering Vivian Weil. Sci Eng Ethics 23, 637–651 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-017-9920-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-017-9920-4