bildramer t1_j18801b wrote on December 22, 2022 at 11:34 AM

Reply to comment by XiphosAletheria in Educating Professionals: why we need to cultivate moral virtue in students by ADefiniteDescription

Here's some evidence that there's no meaningful correlation.

EDIT: That said, the article isn't about "advanced study of ethics", it's about more basic professional ethics. It says that e.g. engineers need to do something beyond rote algorithmic code-of-conduct-obeying, they need to exercise judgement. The humanities don't fix a lack of judgement, and IMO nothing that can be taught does. If you don't genuinely care about honesty, others' safety, others' dignity, your own personal responsibility and trustworthiness, externalities, etc., nothing that a professor will tell you (but an employer will tell you to disregard for money) will make you care.

40percentrobot t1_j2d9iro wrote on December 31, 2022 at 11:33 AM

Are you making the claim that you can't teach judgement? If so, is judgement and one's capacity for it simply set at birth?

I happen to think judgement is learned, and if it can be learned, it can be taught.

Many professions require their licensees to study a professional code, or go through continuing education on the subject. Even sociopaths understand rules and that following them will keep them out of trouble (i.e. losing their license). This isn't merely blind rule-following, though, because code of conduct rules are not written to account for every ethical scenario.

Ultimately, if it makes sense to teach ethics to licensed professionals, why wouldn't it make sense to teach it to non-licensees?