Speculative ethics, design, philosophy & education

Designing requires great social and moral responsibility as we are sur-rounded by products and services that shape -and simultaneously get shaped by- the way we live. This asks for active reflection on ethical issues. However, with the classical top-down approach, ethics may be perceived as restrictive, setting boundaries for what is allowed and what not. Within philosophy of technology, ethical reflection is moving towards a more constructive approach, accompanying technological develop-ment with careful considerations. This paper takes a step further and proposes some-thing that could be called 'creative ethics', where a bottom-up approach in dealing with ethical issues fosters inspiration and imagination for desirable futures. This is il-lustrated with a case study on designing gender-neutral toilet facilities with students from the University of Antwerp and Saxion University of Applied Sciences. The result-ing speculative designs open up the discussion about human values, personal identity and how we relate to each other.