Lecture- Ethics- What is good?

first things first manifesto- ken garland
this manifesto in short basically argues that visual communicators and creatives were wasting their talents by taking jobs that contribute little to the world. 


the manifesto was then republished in adbusters, two very different presentations of ethics 

Culture jamming- 
the practice of criticizing and subverting advertising and consumerism in the mass media, by methods such as producing advertisements parodying those of global brands.

A meme in advertising- a unit of information that leaps from brain to brain to brain. Memes compete with one another for replication, and are passed down through a population much the same way genes pass through a species. 

Victor Papanek
'most things are designed not for the needs of the people but for the needs of manufactures to sell to people'   He thought that creative thinkers really can help solve a lot of problems in the world 

how do we determine what is good? 

subjective relativism 
-there are no universal moral norms of right and wrong
-all persons decide right and wrong for themselves 


Ethical Theories

-subjective realism
-there are no universal moral norms of right and wrong

cultural relativism 
-the ethical theory that what's right or wrong depends on place and/or time

Divine Command theory


Kantianism (deontological ethics)  
Deontological ethics or deontology is the normative ethical position that judges the morality of an action based on the action's adherence to a rule or rules. It is sometimes described as "duty" or "obligation" or "rule"-based ethics, because rules "bind you to your duty."


Utilitarianism, or Consequentialist ethics (John Stuart Mill)

-Principle of utility
-an action is right to the extent that it increases the total happiness of the affected parties
-an action is wrong to the extent that it decreases the total happiness of the affected parties 
-happiness may have many definitions such as: advantage, benefit, good, or pleasure 

Rules are based on the principles of utility
-a rule is right to the extent that it increses the total of happiness of the affected parties 
-the greatest happiness principle is applied to moral rules

Toolbox of moral/ethical theories 

whether presented with problems that are easy or difficult to solve, the four workable ethical theories 

-kantianism 
-act utilitarianism
-rule utilitarianism 
-social contract theory

could provide us with possible solutions to many of the problems that are raised by the 'First things first' manifesto.