Designing in Ethics

This book shows how an emphasis on design can help us usefully apply ethics to a world built on institutions and technology.

This book shows how the design of institutions and technology can be integrated with ethical thought, providing real-world solutions to current moral issues like sustainability, poverty and privacy. It will interest philosophical theorists and practitioners alike, featuring case studies which demonstrate the benefits of this original approach to ethical issues.Many of our interactions in the twenty-first century - both good and bad - take place by means of institutions, technology, and artefacts. We inhabit a world of implements, instruments, devices, systems, gadgets, and infrastructures. Technology is not only something that we make, but is also something that in many ways makes us. The discipline of ethics must take this constitutive feature of institutions and technology into account; thus, ethics must in turn be embedded in our institutions and technology. The contributors to this book argue that the methodology of 'designing in ethics' - addressing and resolving the issues raised by technology through the use of appropriate technological design - is the way to achieve this integration. They apply their original methodology to a wide range of institutions and technologies, using case studies from the fields of healthcare, media and security. Their volume will be important for philosophical practitioners and theorists alike.