Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence

elective courses

Artificial Intelligence has recently evolved to the extent that it now constitutes a primary issue of both technological and anthropological importance. It is a major object of cognitive studies and neuroscience. These developments will be traced during the course from the historical perspective of the origins and major turning points. The course will focus on the issues of metaphysics (mind/body problem, the nature of mind and consciousness), epistemology (AI and truth, AI and representation of the real), ethics (can AI be moral?), anthropology (can there be an artificial person? Turing Test), and social philosophy (what can be economic, political and social consequences of the rise of AI?). The course is aimed to make students aware of the issues implied by various aspects of AI, its possible further developments, threats and advantages that it poses to humanity, as well as its impact on the history.

Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence – Introduction

I History, origins, background

Metaphysics – dualism and monism. The Ancient concepts of mind

Modern philosophy of mind: Hobbes, Descartes, Spinoza

L'homme machine – The Man – machine. La Mettrie and the Enlightenment. Materialists and Romantics.

20th Century Philosophy of Mind. Turing, Searle, Chalmers, Dennett

II Fundamental problems

What is intelligence? What is thinking?

What is person? Can machine be a person?

What is consciousness?

Weak and strong AI

III Ethics of AI

What makes morally accountable? Can machine judge morally?

Applied ethics: AI and decision making

IV Social philosophy of AI

AI and labour

AI and power

AI in the Marxist perspective: utopias and dystopias

V Anthropology of AI

AI from the viewpoint of the history of human civilisation. The future of AI, potentials and dangers.

Blackmore, Susan, 2005, Consciousness: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press

Bostrom, Nick, 2014, Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies, Oxford University Press

Bringsjord, Selmer and Naveen Sundar Govindarajulu, "Artificial Intelligence",The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Fall 2022 Edition

Chalmers, David, 1996, The Conscious Mind: In Search of a Fundamental Theory, Oxford University Press, New York

Chalmers, David, 2010, “The Singularity: A Philosophical Analysis,” Journal of Consciousness Studies, 17: 7–65.

Crawford, Kate, 2021, Atlas of AI: Power, Politics, and the Planetary Costs of Artificial Intelligence. Yale University Press.

Dennett, Daniel, 1991, The Consciousness Explained, Penguin Press

Dreyfus, H., 1992, What Computers Still Can’t Do, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Harnad, Stevan, 2001, "What's Wrong and Right About Searle's Chinese Room Argument?", in Bishop, M.; Preston, J. (eds.), Essays on Searle's Chinese Room Argument, Oxford University Press

Horst, Steven (2009), "The Computational Theory of Mind", in Zalta, Edward N. (ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University.

Kurzweil, Ray, 2005,The Singularity is Near, New York: Viking Press

Moor, J., 2006, “The Nature, Importance, and Difficulty of Machine Ethics”, IEEE Intelligent Systems, 21.4: 18–21.

Penrose, Roger, 1994, Shadows of the Mind, Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

Russell, S. & Norvig, P., 2009, Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach 3rd edition, Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Searle, John, 1980,"Minds, Brains and Programs"

Searle, John, 1999, Mind, language and society, New York, NY: Basic Books

Turing, A., 1950, “Computing Machinery and Intelligence,” Mind, LIX: 433–460.

Wallach, W. & Allen, C., 2010, Moral Machines: Teaching Robots Right from Wrong, Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

Students know, understand and can articulate basic issues of the philosophy of artificial intelligence (as listed in the long description)

Frequency and an obligatory final paper

no