Visual ethics: a past case and a present one

Visual representations are powerful aids to communication, making points with clarity and force but they can offer opportunities for ethical and rhetorical lapses. Two cases are examined: Ernst Haeckel's illustrations of supposed embryonic states in support of his biogenetic law in the late-180...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inIEEE International Professional Communication Conference, 2003. IPCC 2003. Proceedings p. 7 pp.
Main Author Dombrowski, P.M.
Format Conference Proceeding
LanguageEnglish
Published IEEE 2003
Subjects
Computer aided software engineering
Embryo
Environmental factors
Etching
Ethics
Ground support
Physics
Publishing
Rhetoric
Solid state circuits
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:Visual representations are powerful aids to communication, making points with clarity and force but they can offer opportunities for ethical and rhetorical lapses. Two cases are examined: Ernst Haeckel's illustrations of supposed embryonic states in support of his biogenetic law in the late-1800s and Jan Schon's graphs of ground-breaking research findings in solid state physics very recently. Both sets of illustration have been shown to be fraudulent. In visual ethics the key questions remain the same: how did the visual come about, what do they mean, and do they show what they claim to represent?.
ISBN:0780379497
9780780379497
DOI:10.1109/IPCC.2003.1245522