Dear Alan,
I presented a paper at the 5th European Academy of Design Conference in Barcelona last year which refers to design ethics and the life of Albert Speer. His client was the Third Reich and I am proposing this as an archetype of design ethics. I also use a definition from Peter Singer who is in the news over here at the moment.
My paper has been published by the conference organisers and can be found at: http://www.ub.edu/5ead/PDF/15/Retallick.pdf
Sincerely,
Peter Retallick
--- On Sat 05/08, Alan Murdock < [log in to unmask] > wrote:
From: Alan Murdock [mailto: [log in to unmask]]
To: [log in to unmask]
Date: Fri, 7 May 2004 21:38:41 -0700
Subject: Design Ethics
I have been thinking about possibilities for researching design ethics.<br> I would like to pose this as a question because the area is, to me,<br>one of interest rather than specialty. There may be another<br>participant on the list who can better lead a discussion on the topic.<br><br>I have some general thoughts that I would like to put out there just to<br>see what comes of them in discussion.<br><br>I see two types of ethics in play in design practices. These I think<br>of as "Broad Ethics" and "Deep Ethics."<br><br>The first I see as general and applicable to any design practice. For<br>example, all designers have ethical responsibilities to those for whom<br>they design. This could include ethical pricing, ethical business<br>practices, a commitment to not doing harm to the client, among other<br>things.<br><br>"Deep Ethics" could go beyond the ethics of the designer to encompass<br>the ethics of the client. For example, a designer !
working on a product<br>for a medical doctor must keep in mind the doctor's ethics. For<br>example the American Medical Association lists basic principles of<br>medical ethics at http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/2512.html<br>including the statement "A physician shall support access to medical<br>care for all people."' A doctor can lose his or her license to<br>practice for breaking certain ethical codes (more severe than the one<br>listed here) and thus the products designed for the doctor must be<br>usable in a way that doesn't break that code.<br><br>Living in a country that has no national health coverage, it seems to<br>me that a designer creating medical products that would reduce the cost<br>of medical care, or speed healing (reducing hospital stays) and so<br>forth would go deeper than the designer's "broad" ethics to encompass<br>the ethics of two industries.<br><br>The relationship between deep and wide ethics would be significantly<br>!
different for a designer producing weapons for the military,<br>essentially providing the most safety for the user and the most harm to<br>the enemy. This is extremely simplistic, but I mean it only as a<br>starting point that someone else may flesh out.<br><br>Potentially the deepest ethics today seem to be visualized by green<br>designers. They seem to be working on the most unified view of design,<br>linking culture and the environment with an agenda associated for<br>better or worse with the language of responsibility. However, a<br>completely unified system doesn't allow for checks and balances.<br>Because of this, a completely unified view relying solely on "deep<br>ethics" could break the general principles of "broad ethics" mentioned<br>above. If fully applied it would be difficult to tell when "green<br>design" is actually creating a healthier safer design process and when<br>it is solely propaganda.<br><br>Clearly the issue of ethi!
cs in relation to its application through<br>design is not a purified field. It must be malleable across the many<br>applications of design.<br><br>I am wondering:<br><br>1. What methods could be applied to gather information about design<br>ethics?<br>2. How can the dynamic application of "broad" and "deep" ethical<br>practices be charted?<br>3. How are ethical codes developed, encouraged and moderated in fields<br>of design?<br>4. Is this an area of research for designers, or is it something that<br>is better explored through philosophy or another field?<br>
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