Ethics (BAF WEEK)

Ethics Lecture

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 belief; 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 work 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 uncomfortable with this view of design. Designers who devote their efforts primarily to advertising, marketing and brand development are supporting, and implicitly endorsing, a mental environment so saturated with commercial messages that it is changing the very way citizen-consumers speak, think, feel, respond and interact.

There are pursuits more worthy of our problem-solving skills. Unprecedented environmental, social and cultural crises demand our attention. Many cultural interventions, social marketing campaigns, books, magazines, exhibitions, educational tools, television programmes, 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 mindshift away from product marketing and toward the exploration and production of a new kind of meaning. The scope of debate is shrinking; it must expand. Consumerism is running uncontested; it must be challenged by other perspectives expressed, in part, through the visual languages and resources of design.

In 1964, 22 visual communicators signed the original call for our skills to be put to worthwhile use. With the explosive growth of global commercial culture, their message has only grown more urgent. Today, we renew their manifesto in expectation that no more decades will pass before it is taken to heart.

“A meme (rhymes with dream) is a unit of information (a catchphrase, a concept, a tune, a belief) that leaps from brain to brain to brain. Memes compete with one

another for replication, and are passed down through a population much the same way genes pass through a species. Potent memes can change minds, alter behavior, catalyze collective mindshifts, and transform cultures. Which is why meme warfare has become the geopolitical battle of our information age. Whoever has the memes has the power.”

Culture Jamming / Meme Warfare. Adbusters & Kalle Lasn

‘Most things are designed not for 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?

Ethical Theories,

Subjective Relativism

There are no universal moral norms of right and wrong

All persons decide right and wrong for themselves.

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.

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 holy book helps make the decisions

Kantianism

Immanuel Kant (1724 – 1804) a German philosopher

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. Two Formulations of the Categorical Imperative. 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.

Utilitarianism (John Stuart Mill)

Principle of Utility (Also known as Greatest Happiness Principle)

An action is right to the extent that it increases the total happiness of the affected parties. An action is wrong to the extent that it decreases 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- Jacques Rousseau (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.

Morality vs. Legal

Are all legal acts also moral?

Difficult to determine because many immoral acts are not addressed by the law.

Are all illegal acts immoral?

Social Contract Theory: Yes, we are obligated to follow the

Kantianism: Yes, by the two Categorical Imperatives

Rule Utilitarianism: Yes, because rules are broken

Act Utilitarianism: Depends on the situation. Sometimes more good comes from breaking a law.

Toolbox of Moral / Ethical Theories

Whether presented with problems that are easy or difficult to solve, the four workable ethical theories, could provide us with possible solutions to many of the problems that are raised by the ‘First Things First’ manifesto.

Kantianism

Act Utilitarianism

Rule Utilitarianism

Social Contract Theory

Socially and Ecologically Responsible Design.

The assets of the worlds top three billionaires are greater than those of the poorest 600 million on the planet.

More than a third of the worlds population (2.8 billion)live on less than two dollars a day.

1.2 billion live on less than one dollar a day

In 2002 34.6 million Americans lived below the official poverty line (8.5 million of those had jobs!). Black American Poverty double that of whites.

Per capita income in sub-Saharan Africa =$490

Per capita subsidy for European cows = $913