The Ethics of Design

Abstract

This paper applies philosophical thinking to discuss the ethics of design, delving into its theoretical foundations, various implications, practical applications, and manifestation in contemporary social design, as well as its impacts on design education and the development of the design industry. The main goal is to open up possibilities for future research directions in design ethics. To serve this goal, this study adopts an interdisciplinary approach that combines an innovative theoretical framework with a quantitative evaluation model. It hopes to understand how different strands of philosophical thinking (including metaphysical, dialectical, and ethical thinking) impact the ethics of design by providing a theoretical foundation and methodological guidance for the latter. Furthermore, it applies frameworks of philosophical thinking to key concepts in design ethics, such as user-centeredness, sustainable development, and social responsibility. Through controlled experiments, we verify the effectiveness of our philosophical thinking-based design ethics evaluation model for capturing these key concepts. The limitations of our study include the limited sample size and our doubt of whether it could capture emerging and increasingly complex design sub-fields (such as quantum computing and brain-computer interface). We provide a foundation for future researchers to address design ethics for these new sub-fields, specifically by encouraging them to optimize the evaluation model, strengthen interdisciplinary cooperation, and be more future-oriented. The present work has the more practical goal of cultivating the ethical awareness of designers, proposing an ethical management mechanism of enterprises, improving the professional ethics level of the industry, and promoting interdisciplinary collaboration to better cope with the increasingly complex issues in design ethics, and ultimately achieving the harmonious coexistence of design with society and the environment.