skip to main content
US FlagAn official website of the United States government
dot gov icon
Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
https lock icon
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( lock ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Explore Research Products in the PAR
It may take a few hours for recently added research products to appear in PAR search results.


Title: Kantian one day, Consequentialist the next: Moral emotions as mediators between ethical frameworks for robots
The field of machine ethics in the process of designing and developing the computational underpinnings necessary for a robot to make ethical decisions in real-world environments. Yet a key issue faced by machine ethics researchers is the apparent lack of consensus as to the existence and nature of a correct moral theory. Our research seeks to grapple with, and perhaps sidestep, this age-old and ongoing philosophical problem by creating a robot architecture that does not strictly rely on one particular ethical theory. Rather, it would be informed by the insights gleaned from multiple ethical frameworks, perhaps including Kantianism, Utilitarianism, and Ross’s duty-based ethical theory, and by moral emotions. Arguably, moral emotions are an integral part of a human’s ethical decision-making process and thus need to be accounted for if robots are to make decisions that roughly approximate how humans navigate through ethically complex circumstances. The aim of this presentation is to discuss the philosophical aspects of our approach.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1848974
PAR ID:
10123995
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ;
Date Published:
Journal Name:
2019 Conference of the International Association for Computing and Philosophy (IACAP 2019)
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
More Like this
  1. ; ; (, 2019 Conference of the International Association for Computing and Philosophy (IACAP 2019))
    The field of machine ethics in the process of designing and developing the computational underpinnings necessary for a robot to make ethical decisions in real-world environments. Yet a key issue faced by machine ethics researchers is the apparent lack of consensus as to the existence and nature of a correct moral theory. Our research seeks to grapple with, and perhaps sidestep, this age-old and ongoing philosophical problem by creating a robot architecture that does not strictly rely on one particular ethical theory. Rather, it would be informed by the insights gleaned from multiple ethical frameworks, perhaps including Kantianism, Utilitarianism, and Ross’s duty based ethical theory, and by moral emotions. Arguably, moral emotions are an integral part of a human’s ethical decision-making process and thus need to be accounted for if robots are to make decisions that roughly approximate how humans navigate through ethically complex circumstances. The aim of this presentation is to discuss the philosophical aspects of our approach. 
    more » « less
  2. ; ; ; ; (, ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction)
    null (Ed.)
    We examined how robots can successfully serve as moral advisors for humans. We evaluated the effectiveness of moral advice grounded in deontological, virtue, and Confucian role ethics frameworks in encouraging humans to make honest decisions. Participants were introduced to a tempting situation where extra monetary gain could be earned by choosing to cheat (i.e., violating the norm of honesty). Prior to their decision, a robot encouraged honest choices by offering a piece of moral advice grounded in one of the three ethics frameworks. While the robot’s advice was overall not effective at discouraging dishonest choices, there was preliminary evidence indicating the relative effectiveness of moral advice drawn from deontology. We also explored how different cultural orientations (i.e., vertical and horizontal collectivism and individualism) influence honest decisions across differentially-framed moral advice. We found that individuals with a strong cultural orientation of establishing their own power and status through competition (i.e., high vertical individualism) were more likely to make dishonest choices, especially when moral advice was drawn from virtue ethics. Our findings suggest the importance of considering different ethical frameworks and cultural differences to design robots that can guide humans to comply with the norm of honesty. 
    more » « less
  3. ; ; ; ; ; (, AI magazine)
    The recent surge in interest in ethics in artificial intelligence may leave many educators wondering how to address moral, ethical, and philosophical issues in their AI courses. As instructors we want to develop curriculum that not only prepares students to be artificial intelligence practitioners, but also to understand the moral, ethical, and philosophical impacts that artificial intelligence will have on society. In this article we provide practical case studies and links to resources for use by AI educators. We also provide concrete suggestions on how to integrate AI ethics into a general artificial intelligence course and how to teach a stand-alone artificial intelligence ethics course. 
    more » « less
  4. ; ; ; ; ; (, AI magazine)
    The recent surge in interest in ethics in artificial intelligence may leave many educators wondering how to address moral, ethical, and philosophical issues in their AI courses. As instructors we want to develop curriculum that not only prepares students to be artificial intelligence practitioners, but also to understand the moral, ethical, and philosophical impacts that artificial intelligence will have on society. In this article we provide practical case studies and links to resources for use by AI educators. We also provide concrete suggestions on how to integrate AI ethics into a general artificial intelligence course and how to teach a stand-alone artificial intelligence ethics course. 
    more » « less
  5. ; ; (, 2022 ASEE - North Central Section Conference)
    Ethics as long been recognized as vital to responsible engineering practice, with research focusing mostly on the effects of ethics pedagogies and programs on ethical reasoning and knowledge. Historically, engineering ethics has tended to be “normative” – telling people how they should think about or behave in engineering. Recent work in moral and cultural psychology has called into question the extent to which ethical judgements are based primarily ethical reasoning. Ethical judgments are also the result of intuitions, emotions, and held values. The authors argue that more empirical research using this perspective is needed to explore first-year engineering students’ ethical intuition. As such, this quantitative and qualitative research study examines the relationship between moral intuitions, measured using the Moral Foundations Questionnaire (MFQ), and student-held values about what is important in the engineering profession. Around 285 first-year engineering students were surveyed at a public university in the northeast United States as part of a larger research initiative that seeks to understand the effects of diverse cultural and educational experiences on ethical judgements in engineering. This paper reports the findings from a portion of this survey, namely the MFQ and the open-ended question “List three values you think are the most important for defining a good engineer”. Descriptive and correlational analyses are employed to examine meaningful connections between moral intuitions and values. Since moral foundations theory is based on a broader, more inclusive understanding of ethics, results from this research can be more easily generalized, compared, and built on in increasingly cross-cultural settings. 
    more » « less
  • Citation Formats
  • MLA
  • APA
  • Chicago
  • BibTeX
  • Save / Share this Record
  • Send to Email