Thought Experiments in Design Ethics

How is the designer to approach questions of responsibility, obligation, or right and wrong in relation to their role in creating, sustaining and altering the complex worlds which we inhabit together? Every design decision stands as the first teetering domino at the head of an infinitely complex fractal chain reaction of consequences, the full repercussions of which are ultimately unforeseeable. The moment of ethical crisis – being faced with a range of possible options and lacking a fully adequate knowledge of which path is best to choose – is an unavoidable component of the design process. Ethical theories, principles, codes and rules always lag one step behind the frontier of the new, the territory in which design operates. Recognising that ethical crisis is an integral reality of the design process, how can designers be best supported and equipped for this challenge? This paper explores one path towards this aim, presenting the case for the use of philosophical thought experiments as appropriate and useful devices for developing capacities for ethical thinking and for nurturing a transformed ethical mindset within practising designers. Thought experiments do not directly guide or provide knowledge or answers as to the ‘right’ thing to do in any given situation. Rather, the argument is presented here that thought experiments can stimulate productive conditions in which designers can learn not to ‘know ethics’ but to ‘think ethics’. By playing these mind games, the designer can exercise and strengthen their mental capacities for responding to ethical encounters within the complexity of real-world design practice.