by John Douard, JD, PhD
I just found out that an old friend of mine, Vivian Weil, died earlier this month. This is very sad news for me personally, but also for the philosophical community because Vivian was one of the most important philosophers in the world, especially for those who believe philosophy can and should have an impact on the way we live our lives. Vivian and Nancy Cartwright were the first two students to receive a PhD from the University of Illinois at Chicago (then called Chicago Circle) from the philosophy department, which then and now was one of the best philosophy departments in the country.
Chronologically, they were about three years ahead of me, although I had known them as graduate students since I received my BA there about a year before they received their PhDs. Even as graduate students they were remarkable. Vivian wrote her dissertation on action theory, and was supervised, I believe, by Myles Brand. It was a relatively new specialization, but Vivian went further and, after she began working at the Illinois Institute of Technology (where she remained for her entire long and productive career), she invented engineering ethics from an analytic point of view.
Vivian was slightly older than me because, before getting her PhD, she raised a family. She and her husband Irwin Weil, a remarkable scholar of Russian history, were extraordinarily important to the community of philosophers at UIC. Vivian then spent years at IIT developing relationships with engineers there and everywhere to develop the moral commitments to which they were or should be held in light of the fundamental work they do in ordering our built environments. They are the link between our everyday lives and physics, chemistry, and biology. Like physicians and teachers, engineers make implicit moral commitments to all of us when they choose to enter that profession. Vivian, in fact, helped to transform engineering into a profession, because without an explicit moral code a practice is not a profession. Vivian helped to create engineering ethics organizations, and she was trusted by practitioners, a rare feat in any event, but especially rare for a woman working in a good-old-boy field. (At that time philosophy was intensely male dominated and Vivian was important in clearing a path for women in the field.) Vivian had an old-fashioned view of the purpose of philosophy and engineering: both should help us to live well together.
Vivian was one of the most loving and civil and welcoming people I’ve ever known. One time when I was with her and Irwin on a 4th of July holiday (and I had hoped to reproduce that experience this July 4th when I am in Chicago), she, Irwin, and another friend of mine whom they didn’t know until then, took turns reading the Declaration of Independence. It was a very moving ceremony with celebratory food and drink. I don’t think she knew how much she meant to me because I wasn’t able to talk to her before she died, and I only heard she was sick until she apparently was very sick, but I’ll treasure my friendship with her for the rest of my life. Goodbye Viv. I’ll miss your curiosity, your joyful smile, and the glint in your eye when something tickled you. Rest in peace.