Akrasia, Ethics and Design Education
Susan Stewart, Jacqueline Lorber-Kasunic · Design Philosophy Papers · 2006
Where to start?This paper is about making a start, It is about recognising and respondlng to openmqs, rather than focusing on the achievement of ends.[1] In this, it makes a somewhat unconventional approach to discussion of ethics and design, both of which topics are often dominated by consideration of ends. of the problems to be solved.[2]But it is an approach that should sit comfortably with educators.as educanon, like this paper.is concerned with making the most of openings.This paper is also about akrasia: an unfamiliar term that names a failing familiar to us au.Akrasia is the failure to do what one knows to be right (Aristotle 1 Nicomachean Ethics, 1145a15-b20).It could be said that this is the failing most at issue in contemporary consumer society.We know that we should respect the compleXity and fragRity of life on our planet, we should reduce energy and material consumption, be open and unafraid in our dealings with otherness.exercise more.eat less, spend more time with friends and family.help those in need and more actively participate in the polUicallife of our community.In many cases we actively desire to do right in such matters.But for the most part we fail.The dominant sources of akrasia, the particular responsibilities that are recognised but nevertheless frequently shirked, will vary from one individual to another; from one culture or subculture to the next.But in each case, and this is what ts important.akrasia alerts us to matters that are of concern for that individual, for that culture (Latouf,.2005 1 pp.14-41).The central argument of this paper is built through three successive claims.The first is that akrasta, through its momentary recognition (and hasty suppression] of matters of concern, provides an opening.an opportunity for design to respond to something that matters.A design intervention fr~m;