Social contract

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.