Philosophical discussion on control has largely centred around control over our actions and beliefs. Yet this overlooks the question of whether we also have control over the reasons for which we act and believe. To date, the overriding assumption appears to be that we do not, and with seemingly good reason. We cannot choose to act for a reason and acting-for-a-reason is not itself something we do. While some have challenged this in the case of reasons for action, these claims (...) seem especially untenable regarding believing for a reason. And extending the scope of control in this way also faces the threat of regress. In the face of this orthodoxy, the present paper argues that we do in fact have control over both believing and acting for a particular reason. It also starts to develop an account of the way in which this would be possible. Given the broad importance of understanding control and agency, this paper bears on a number of topics in epistemology, the philosophy of mind, and ethics. (shrink)

Deep learning AI systems have proven a wide capacity to take over human-related activities such as car driving, medical diagnosing, or elderly care, often displaying behaviour with unpredictable consequences, including negative ones. This has raised the question whether highly autonomous AI may qualify as morally responsible agents. In this article, we develop a set of four conditions that an entity needs to meet in order to be ascribed moral responsibility, by drawing on Aristotelian ethics and contemporary philosophical research. We encode (...) these conditions and generate a flowchart that we call the Moral Responsibility Test. This test can be used as a tool both to evaluate whether an entity is a morally responsible agent and to inform human moral decision-making over the influencing variables of the context of action. We apply the test to the case of Artificial Moral Advisors and conclude that this form of AI cannot qualify as morally responsible agents. We further discuss the implications for the use of AMAs as moral enhancement and show that using AMAs to offload human responsibility is inadequate. We argue instead that AMAs could morally enhance users if they are interpreted as enablers for moral knowledge of the contextual variables surrounding human moral decision-making, with the implication that such a use might actually enlarge human moral responsibility. (shrink)

Freedom, and in particular, the freedom of human beings, is a hot topic within the field of metaphysics. In this paper, instead of arguing for the truth of a particular position on freedom, I explore whether a particular position, compatibilism, might be consistent with the existence of moral responsibility and retributive justice. To alleviate ambiguity, I construct a model by which the four primary positions on freedom might be clearly understood. I then distinguish between what I call ‘common-sense’ views of (...) moral responsibility, and ‘complex’ views of moral responsibility. I select a particular complex view, which I term the ‘virtue’ theory of moral responsibility, offer some justification for the sensibility of such a theory, and demonstrate how the virtue theory is consistent with compatibilism. Finally, I propose that retributive justice is consistent with the virtue theory of moral responsibility, and consequently, that retributive justice is consistent with compatibilism. (shrink)

This section aims to summarize and conclude Part I in the form of a taxonomy of legitimate and illegitimate corporate moral responsibility attributions. I believe we can categorise four types of corporate moral responsibility attributions two of which are legitimate and two which are illegitimate with regard to our concept of moral agency and our moral intuition of fairness.

This paper examines the libertarian account of free choice advanced by Robert Kane in his recent book, The Significance of Free Will. First a rather simple libertarian view is considered, and an objection is raised against it the view fails to provide for any greater degree of agent-control than what could be available in a deterministic world. The basic differences between this simple view and Kane's account are the requirements, on the latter, of efforts of will and of an agent's (...) wanting more to do a certain thing than he wants to do anything else. It is argued here that neither of these features yields any improvement over the simple libertarian view; neither helps to meet the objection that was raised against the simple view. Finally, it is suggested that a modest defense of that view might be available. (shrink)

This paper examines whether machines (algorithms/programs/ AI systems) are apt subjects for praise or blame for some actions or performances. I consider "Move 37" of AlphaGo as a case study. DeepMind’s AlphaGo is an AI algorithm developed to play the game of Go. The AlphaGo utilizes Deep Neural Networks. As AlphaGo is trained through reinforcement learning, the AI algorithm can improve itself over a period of time. Such AI models can go beyond the intended task and perform novel and unpredictable (...) functions. There is a surprise element associated with "Move 37". "Move 37" not only surprises the Go players, the programmers, but also whoever is informed of this unpredicted move. Does someone or something deserve praise or blame for the surprise? If so, who or what deserves the praise or blame for "Move 37"? The programmer cannot be praised for "Move 37", which is either surprising or was not intended or imagined at all. At the same time, would we accept that neither the algorithm deserves praise for the unpredicted move that the algorithm allowed the program to make? From this, would we accept that since neither the programmer nor the algorithm/AI system deserves the praise, there is such a good or exciting move for which no one or nothing could be praised? Would we say this unpredictable move is a move for which no one deserves praise or blame? Wouldn’t there be at least a few who were surprised by the unpredictable move? Should we say that for this pleasant surprise, no one deserves praise? Nonetheless, for us, specifically regarding the particular unpredictable move, we firmly find it counterintuitive to say that there is an exciting move for which no one deserves praise. The surprise element is the result of the property that belongs to the algorithm. It seems quite difficult for us to accept that no one deserves praise for "Move 37" or for similar moves. Therefore, someone or something deserves praise which is a matter of scrutiny. (shrink)