Moriah Q. Poliakoff

This article offers a novel reading of the relationship between the capacity for action in The Human Condition and human attempts to replicate otherwise natural nuclear processes. It argues that Arendt presents human initiation of nuclear processes as a form of action, but one that lacks action’s traditional remedies: forgiveness and promise-keeping. While forgiveness prevents actors from being the victims of the un-ending consequences of their actions and promise-keeping allows humans to retain their identities, atomic action lacks these buffers. What I term “atomic action,” on the one hand, is rooted in natality as it starts processes but, on the other hand, the processes it lets loose like nuclear fallout cannot be limited. It shows that atomic action remains continuous and discontinuous with her traditional definition of action. Arendt, therefore, acknowledges the limitations of the categories on which she relies to accommodate for this new phenomenon epitomizing the modern world.

This paper explores the often-overlooked role of teaching assistants (TAs) in engineering ethics courses, and a particular challenge that TAs face in these roles. TAs not only undertake tasks like instructors, which include teaching, guiding, and evaluating courses, but they also assume the roles of “intermediaries between instructors and students” and “learners becoming teachers.” These distinct roles present TAs with unique challenges, one of which we call the neutrality problem. This problem pertains to whether TAs can and should maintain a neutral stance in the classroom, particularly when students articulate ideas that deviate from the values promoted in the course or held by the TAs. Using a real-life teaching experience as illustrative, we claim that it is challenging and, at times, undesirable for TAs to achieve pedagogical neutrality, primarily due to their pre-existing understanding of ethics and the actual situation of the students. Nevertheless, we posit that TAs should strive to foster an environment where students are encouraged to improve their ethical awareness. Through the underrepresented lens of TAs, we aim to initiate a multi-faceted dialogue on the teaching philosophy and goal of engineering ethics.