Monday, 24 November 2014

Lecture Notes 8: Ethics - What is Good

  • We, the undersigned, are graphic designers, art directors and visual communicators who have been raised in a world in which the techniques and apparatus of advertising have persistently been presented to us as the most lucrative, effective and desirable use of our talents. Many design teachers and mentors promote this believe; the market rewards it; a tide of books and publications reinforces it.
  • Encouraged in this direction, designers then apply their skill and imagination to sell dog biscuits, designer coffee, diamonds, detergents, hair gel, cigarettes, credit cards, sneakers, butt toners, light beer and heavy-duty recreational vehicles.
  • Commercial works has always paid the bills, but many graphic designers have now let it become, in large measure, what graphic designers do.
  • This, in turn, is how the world perceives design. The profession's time and energy is used up manufacturing demand for things that are inessential at best.
  • Many of us have grown increasingly uncomfortably with this view of design. Designers who devote their efforts primarily to advertising, marketing and brand development are supporting a mental environment so saturated with commercial messages that it is changing the way citizen-consumers speak, think, feel, respond and interact.
  • There are pursuits more worthy of our problem-solving skills. Unprecedented environmental, social and cultural crisis demand our attention. 
  • Many cultural interventions, social marketing campaigns, books, magazines, exhibitions, educational tools, television programs, films, charitable causes and other information design projects urgently require our expertise and help.
  • We propose a reversal of priorities in favour of more useful, lasting and democratic forms of communication - a mind shift away from product marketing and toward the exploration and production of a new kind of meaning.
  • Consumerism is running uncontested; it must be challenged by other perspectives expressed, in part, through the visual languages and resources of design.
  • "Most things are designed not the needs of the people but for the needs of manufacturers to sell to people" ~ Papanek, 1983:46
  • How do we determine what is good?
  • Subjective Relativism
    - There are no universal moral norms of right and wrong
    - All persons decide right and wrong for themselves
  • Cultural Relativism
    - The ethical theory that what's right or wrong depends on place and/or time
  • Divine Command Theory
    - Good actions are aligned with the will of God
    - Bad actions are contrary to the will of God
    - The bible helps make the decisions
  • Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), a German philosopher believed that the people's wills should be based on moral rules. Therefore it's important that our actions are based on appropriate moral rules.
  • To determine when a moral rule is appropriate, Kant proposed two Categorical Imperatives:
    - Act only from moral rules that you can at the same time universalise. (If you act on a moral rule that would cause problems if everyone followed it then your actions are not moral)
    - Act so that you always treat both yourself and other people as ends in themselves, and never only as a means to an end. (If you use people for your own benefit that is not moral)
  • The Principle of Utility (Also known as the Greatest Happiness Principle)
    - An action is right to the extent that is increases the total happiness of the affected parties
    - An action is wrong to the extent that is decrease the total happiness of the affected parties.
    - Happiness may have many definitions such as: advantage, benefit, good, or pleasure
  •  Rules are based on the Principle of Utility
    - A rule is right to the extent that it increases the total happiness of the affected parties
    - The Greatest Happiness Principle is applied to moral rules
  • Similar to Kantianism - both pertain to rules
    - But Kantianism uses the Categorical Imperative to decide which rules to follow
  • Social Contract Theory
    - Thomas Hobbes (1603-1679) and Jean-Jazques Roussea (1712-1778)
    - An agreement between individuals held together by common interest
    - Avoids society degenerating into the 'state of nature' or the 'war of all against all' (Hobbes)
    - "Morality consists in the set of rules, governing how people are to treat one another, that rational people will agree to accept, for their mutual benefit, on the condition that others follow those rules as well."
    - We trade some of our liberty for a stable society.
  • Are all legal acts also moral?
    - Difficult to determine because many immortal acts are not addressed by the law
  • Are all illegal acts immoral?
    - Social Contract Theory: Yes, we are obligated to follow the law
    - Kantianism: Yes, by the two Categorical Imperatives
    - Rule Utilitarianism: Yes, because rules are broken
    - Act Utiliarianism: Depends on the situation. Sometimes more good comes from breaking a law

  • Criteria for a Workable Ethical Theory?
    - Moral decisions and rules:
    - Based on logical reasoning
    - Comes from facts and commonly held or shared values
    - Culturally neutral
    - Treat everyone equally

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