Ethics, Aesthetics, and Design

Vincent BWdard. When Goethe wrote the phrase that serves as an epigraph for this essay, he was thinking about artistic practice. But its truth seems to fit our present context so obviously that I don't hesitate to hazard an analogy, in itself always a delicate maneuver. Moreover, during the course of this paper, I will turn to the originality of Goethe's vision once again, this time to evoke certain specific points of his epistemology and methodology. But for the moment, it is the relations of humankind to technology that engages us, more precisely, the ethical questions arising from the unprecedented technological developments in the Western world over the past few decades. To that general problematic, concerning which some philosophers of technology have coined the neologism technoethics, is associated another of a practical kind: many professions-medicine, law, engineering, journalism, etc.-are currently caught in unprecedented conflicts for the most part also the result of accelerated technological development, which their respective professional code of ethics didn't foresee and are unable to resolve. This is the case with design as well. The two questions that I just raised were the topic of a collective research project calied, Promethe Eclaire (or Prometheus Enlightened): Ethics, Technology and Professional Responsibility in Design, carried out at the School of Industrial Design at the University of Montreal. The project was part of a vast program, devoted to applied ethics, designated as strategic by the Canadian Council for Research in the Human Sciences.' We set ourselves the task of establishing the general problematic of design ethics, in the broad context of technological ethics or technoethics, and to examine in this light the manner in which the responsibility of designers can be reevaluated. This paper presents some partial conclusions that I believed were worth drawing. They most directly concern design theory, the practice and teaching of design, but in some respects they touch equally on aesthetics. But before presenting these conclusions, I wish to make two clarifications on the use of the words technoethics and design. This research project has given rise to numerous endeavors and publications. Thus, 4 special numbers of the journal Informel were devoted to the theme of the project 3 (2, Summer 1990); 4 (1-2, Winter and Summer 1991); 5 (1, Winter 1992). These papers constituted preparatory documents for a colloquium that was held May 8-11, 1991 at the University of Montreal and whose proceedings have been edited by the author under the title: Promethee eclaire. Ethique, technique et responsabilite professionnelle en design, Montreal, Ed. Informel, 1993. The application of the conclusions to architecture and engineering were also examined by the author.