Reform and Revolution: A Comparative Study on Ethical Concern of European Modern Design

European modern design arose during the late 19th century and the early 20th century. Its rise has displayed a strong historical interaction with social change towards modernisation in which aesthetics, technology, politics, as well as ethics had been outlined and highlighted. In this research, a comparative study is carried out to investigate the relationship between ethical concern and European modern design movements. By social theories and comparative sociological methods, the study has reviewed the diversified social improvement contributions of European modern design designers or ideologists. It draws the conclusion that Some of concerns managed to overcome social crisis by dissolving industrial society, while the others tried to resolve it by strengthening social industrialisation. The former is interpreted as "retrospective" quality, which reveals traditional humanistic anxiety and the latter as "prospective" quality, which indicates contemporary metropolis' social management trend. It also clarifies the ethical value of modern design movements and practice in Europe.