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The Ajax Dilemma
Ethics, Justice, and Moral Leadership
This essay examines the ethical tensions at the heart of Paul Woodruff’s The Ajax Dilemma: justice, fairness, and the recognition of moral worth, and considers how these tensions resonate within contemporary design practice. Through the tragic figure of Ajax, Woodruff exposes the failure of leadership that prioritises procedural fairness over moral recognition.
The essay argues that ethical action cannot be reduced to rules or outcomes alone. Justice is relational; it requires attentiveness to context, character, and vulnerability. When systems fail to recognise the emotional and moral reality of those they govern, they reproduce harm even under the guise of fairness.
Reading Woodruff alongside questions of design ethics, the essay positions leadership, and by extension design, as a moral practice grounded in humility, empathy, and care. Ethical responsibility emerges not from authority or efficiency, but from the willingness to see, listen, and respond to what is fragile.
FULL ESSAY (PDF)