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(1)

Thanks to Glenn for his clarifying response. I mistook amiguity for cynicism.

As I wrote, I don't have a specific example of environmentally-responsible
injection molding. I'd have to look. What I do know is that an increasing
number of manufacturers are working on these issues. There are processes of
all kinds that are not by nature green. These can nevertheless be organized
to be neutral or even, in some cases, positively green. In a world of 7
billion people, some injection molding systems must inevitably exist that
meet green criteria for neutrality, and if coupled with energy reduction,
care with chemicals management, and recycling of material, they are
reasonably green.

(2)

Thanks to Victor Margolin for a selection among the books in his longer
essay, proposing those that remain important to the entire field of design
studies today.

There is only one major title by Buckminster Fuller that remains in print:

Critical Path.

Fortunately, this one major title offers an excellent overview and summary
of Fuller's thinking and work. If it were to come back into print, Utopia
or Oblivion is an important book with specific attention to design and
design studies.

(3)

Ellen Young is right.

Adam Smith saw himself above all as a moral philosopher. He was properly
skeptical toward business interests, and he believed that the mechanism of
the invisible hand worked best only in the presence of ethical
responsibility.

Smith's (1976 [1776]: 144) most famous skeptical comment on business states
that "People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and
diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public or
in some contrivance to raise prices." The difficulty, as he noted, was the
difficulty of any laws preventing thins from happening that do not
themselves occasion distortions in the flow of economic goods and services
to the public. I've puzzled much on this myself. In the meantime, The
Theory of Moral Sentiments is, indeed, a good place to begin one's thinking
on these issues.

-- Ken Friedman

References:

Smith, Adam. 1976 [1776]. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of The
Wealth of Nations. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.




Ken Friedman, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Leadership and Strategic Design
Department of Knowledge Management
Norwegian School of Management

+47 22.98.51.07 Direct line
+47 22.98.51.11 Telefax

Home office:

+46 (46) 53.245 Telephone
+46 (46) 53.345 Telefax

email: [log in to unmask]




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