2009 DEFSA Conference [ Opening gates, between and beyond design disciplines
November 2009 ]
| The Ethical Dilemma of a Rapidly Receding Watering Hole | |
| Author | VAN NIEKERK, Johan & M'RITHAA, Mugendi |
| Description | THE ETHICAL DILEMMA OF A RAPIDLY RECEDING WATERING HOLE: Implications For Design Education Johan VAN NIEKERK, Mugendi M'RITHAA Department of Industrial Design at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology Abstract Ethos, the origin of the word ethics, originally meant a place where animals frequent. When the herds gather at the watering hole how do they interact with other herds, species or competition? How do they behave in a way that they will be welcomed back? A failure in ethics is an indication of a fundamental blind spot about the nature of things. Ethics should never be a listing of minimal (usually negative) standards but rather a way of sensitizing us to nature and the human community (Moore 2003). We as Homo sapiens or in Latin "wise humans" have lost touch with our subtle understanding about the nature of things. Globalization and the scale of industrialization required to maintain our booming population have also led us to a new era of ethical behaviour. The overcrowding around the watering hole is unprecedented. No model of the past has adequately taken into account an estimated population of 6.684 billion (as of July 2008) and an expected 9 billion by 2054 (UN Population Division 2001). It is essential that we relearn how to ‘drink at the watering hole’ in a sustainable and equitable manner bearing in mind that we don’t jeopardize our children’s chances of being welcomed back! Keywords: Design Ethics, Leapfrog Hypothesis, Moral Psychology, Sustainable Production, Ubuntu. |
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| Filesize | 133.48 kB |
| Date | Sunday 24 January 2010 |
| Downloads | 122 |
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