Abstract
One of the limitations of rational design as a model of good design is that it omits moral considerations. Recall Dieter Rams’s view that good design is aimed at making the world more humane. This criterion is not about how optimal a design is in the achievement of its function but rather about the quality of that function itself. The question is: Is the world that a design helps to bring about a good world? The concept of the social contract is relevant to addressing this question. A social contract is, typically, a body of rights that people observe so that they may thrive through collaboration and cooperation. Through cooperation, people may become better off than they would be by simply acting individually on their own behalf. On this view, the question of good design comes down to a matter of how well designs respect people’s rights within some applicable social contract. Social contracts are often reflected in legal codes, such as safety regulations, that spell out how designs are expected to perform.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Livingston (2007), p. 170.
- 2.
Alphabet (2015).
- 3.
Selinger (2014).
- 4.
Selinger (2014).
- 5.
Selinger (2014).
- 6.
Horn (1995).
- 7.
Churchill (2008), p. 574.
- 8.
- 9.
Cf. Xie (2014).
- 10.
The City of San Francisco, where the service was launched in the United States, deemed it illegal and ordered it to cease operations (Maddaus 2014).
- 11.
The Economist (2014).
- 12.
The Economist (2016).
- 13.
Patterson (2012).
- 14.
Hewitt (nd).
- 15.
The Economist (2012).
- 16.
Steele and Hermiston (2015).
- 17.
Johnson and Goldstein (2003).
- 18.
Singh (2015).
References
Alphabet. (2015, October 2). Alphabet code of conduct. Retrieved January 26, 2016, from Google: https://investor.google.com/corporate/code-of-conduct.html
Churchill, W. (2008). Churchill by himself: The definitive collection of quotations (R. M. Langworth, Ed.). New York: Public Affairs.
Hewitt, E. (nd). The shrinking airline seat. Retrieved May 25, 2016, from Independent traveller: http://www.independenttraveler.com/travel-tips/travelers-ed/the-shrinking-airline-seat
Horn, P. (1995). Children’s work and welfare, 1780–1890. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Johnson, E. J., & Goldstein, D. (2003). Do defaults save lives? Science, 302(5649), 1338–1339.
Livingston, J. (2007). Founders at work: Stories of startups’ early days. Berlin: Springer.
Locke, J. (1689/1988). Two treatises of government (P. Laslett, Ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Maddaus, G. (2014, September 18). Kicked out of San Francisco, MonkeyParking app plans a fresh start in Santa Monica. Retrieved May 25, 2016, from LA Weekly: http://www.laweekly.com/news/kicked-out-of-san-francisco-monkeyparking-app-plans-a-fresh-start-in-santa-monica-5080436
Patterson, T. (2012, June 1). Airline squeeze: It’s not you, ‘it’s the seat’. Retrieved May 25, 2016, from CNN: http://www.cnn.com/2012/05/30/travel/airline-seats/
Selinger, E. (2014, February 26). Today’s apps are turning us into sociopaths. Retrieved February 27, 2014, from Wired: http://www.wired.com/2014/02/outsourcing-humanity-apps/
Singh, M. (2015, April 29). When you make kids’ meals healthier by default, they still eat ‘em up. Retrieved May 6, 2015, from National Public Radio: http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2015/04/29/403086469/when-you-make-kids-meals-healthier-by-default-they-still-eat-em-up
Steele, L., & Hermiston, S. (2015, February 9). Too tall to fly? Airlines accused of height discrimination. Retrieved May 25, 2016, from CTV Vancouver: http://bc.ctvnews.ca/too-tall-to-fly-airlines-accused-of-height-discrimination-1.2219269
The Economist. (2012, November 12). How should airlines treat larger passengers? Retrieved May 25, 2016, from The Economist: http://www.economist.com/blogs/gulliver/2012/11/obese-flyers
The Economist. (2014, July 12). A bunch of new apps test the limits of the sharing economy. Retrieved July 19, 2014, from The Economist: http://www.economist.com/news/business/21606874-bunch-new-apps-test-limits-sharing-economy-antisocial-networks
The Economist. (2016, February 16). Legislation to make flying in America more comfortable has failed. Retrieved May 25, 2016, from The Economist: http://www.economist.com/blogs/gulliver/2016/02/stretch-too-far
Xie, J. (2014, May 23). A new parking app that’s virtually guaranteed to stir up controversy. Retrieved May 24, 2014, from The Atlantic CityLab: http://www.citylab.com/commute/2014/05/a-new-parking-app-thats-virtually-guaranteed-to-stir-up-controversy/371268/
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Shelley, C. (2017). Social Contract. In: Design and Society: Social Issues in Technological Design. Studies in Applied Philosophy, Epistemology and Rational Ethics, vol 36. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-52515-0_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-52515-0_6
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-52514-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-52515-0
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)