Ethics as Design: Doing Justice to Moral Problems

The question is not simply how I should evaluate proposed courses of action, but how I go about devising such courses ofaction, a subject on which ethics has had little to say.

Abstract

Solving actual moral problems is not simply a matter of choosing the\n"best" of several possible responses. It is also a matter of devising possible\nresponses. Design practice in engineering affords important lessons about\naddressing practical problems....Denying that there is a uniquely correct\nsolution goes against some common ways of speaking about ethics, such as\n"doing the right thing" in a situation....The advice to act only when one is\ncertain is a license to avoid action....The analogy with design problems\nimplies that we should expect that even excellent responses to a problem may\nbe improved upon in many cases.