Utility Reassessed

The Role of Ethics in the Practice of Design

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Edited by Judy Attfield

Manchester University Press

Due/Published November 2001, 288 pages, paper

ISBN 0719058449

Reassessing the concept of utility, this thought-provoking collection explores the philosophy behind utility, and offer a discussion of rational, or ethical, design theory. Rather than repeating arguments about the inadequacies of modern functional design, the book approaches the subject as a continuing history which has attempted to improve the human condition through a process of rational thought in the construction of the material world. Detailed historical studies of cars, textiles, clothing, ceramics, and furniture are presented alongside a generic definition of utility which puts forth a new ethical design theory.