Visual ethics: a past case and a present one

Abstract

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?.