To the editors:
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I have been teaching engineering thermodynamics (and a little bit of ethics) for a while, at the Illinois Institute of Technology. I am now cooperating with IIT’s Center for the Study of Ethics in the Professions in a new program aimed at teaching faculty how to add ethics to their regular courses. Almost from my start there, I have learned to appreciate the efforts of all the people quoted in the article: Vivian Weil and Michael Davis, of IIT, and John Regalbuto, of UIC. About a year ago, the four of us met for lunch to discuss John’s plan to start the new course featured in the article. It was then, as it is now, a bold project. Yet, it seems more likely to succeed now than it did then.
Natural ethics is independent of any religious creed; it depends on the common characteristics of people’s understanding of right and wrong. For instance, most agree that killing is wrong; anyone who disagrees with this is considered a pathological case. The same can be said of lying or stealing. These, and other subtler points are engraved in our minds with a strength that goes beyond the barriers of creed, language, or culture. Natural ethics’ only “belief” is that these rules are an integral part of human nature. The evidence of centuries overwhelmingly supports this assertion.
Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
