Browsing by Subject "autonomy"
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(2023)In the future we’ll see increasing collaboration between humans and artificial entities. Many of our jobs will be outsourced to them as they advance and outperform us in various tasks. The rapid progress of these artificial entities raises important ethical questions, one of these is whether we should strive for artificial moral agency. It would allow for ethically inclined robots. Having ethically acting artificial entities not only ensures that their behavior aligns with our norms but also builds trust in their actions and enhances collaboration. This is also a means of protecting humans from potential apocalyptic scenarios depicted in science fiction, as morally inclined artificial entities could prevent such outcomes. I focus on the philosophical question of how artificial entities would satisfy the conditions required for moral agency. In this thesis I examine three conditions that entities must satisfy to have moral agency: intentionality, autonomy, and moral responsibility. My argument is based on the premise that, since humans are essentially biological machines operating according to complex algorithms, when artificial algorithms attain a comparable level of complexity, they meet the criteria for moral agency and should be held accountable for their actions. Therefore, artificial entities could satisfy these conditions and possess moral agency. To identify moral agency in others, I propose that we should take the stance of mind-reading, contemplating whether the actions of others tell us whether they have inner states. I make the claim that artificial entities can achieve a state where they display behavior complex enough for us to treat them as moral agents. By displaying complex behavior and expressing it in correlation with their inner states, artificial entities would meet the requirement for identifiable moral agency. This thesis argues that artificial entities can be blameworthy, as they can possess authentic inner states, enabling self-reflection and responsiveness to reasons. They can have the ability to project these inner states into the actual world as acts, and of their own accordance. I also argue, through psychopathy, that moral agency doesn’t require empathy or emotions, but that morality can be achieved in other ways. This thesis also offers a new perspective on 'punishment' and how it could enable us to reprimand artificial entities.
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(2011)In my Master's thesis I discuss a relatively new topic in the discussion on multiculturalism in political philosophy, the right of exit from a religious or a cultural group. Liberal theorists agree on the fact that everyone should be free to leave their group, to have a right to exit. However, they disagree on the content of the right. I present two schools on the topic: the formal right of exit strategy by Chandran Kukathas and the realistic right of exit strategy by Susan Moller Okin. I also view the importance of the individual's right to voice. I try to answer to a question which is twofold: whether the formal right of exit strategy is enough for protecting the freedom of individuals belonging to groups or whether the real abilities to exit should be considered as well, and whether everyone should also have a right to voice. In my work I compare the view of Kukathas with that of Okin. My main sources are Kukathas's book, The Liberal Archipelago. A Theory of Diversity and Freedom (2003) and Okin's article Mistresses of Their Own Destiny? Group Rights, Gender, and Realistic Right of Exit (2002). I also discuss what is often pictured as an alternative or supplement to exit, namely voice. By it is meant the right of the dissenters in the groups to express their views and try to reform their groups accordingly. Regarding to voice, my main source is a book Exit, Voice, and Loyalty (1970) by Albert O. Hirschman. I also cover minors and exit, as well as the so called costs of exit and voice. I show that whereas Okin thinks everyone should have certain capacities to exit, Kukathas objects it is irrelevant to consider them. Okin claims girls and women often lack these capacities. She argues they are for this reason not substantively free to leave their groups, nor in an equal position with men to exercise the right of exit. Therefore the formal right of exit strategy should be rejected. I claim that the debate between Kukathas and Okin comes back to a broader one in liberalism, namely on the question of which is the fundamental value in liberalism: toleration or autonomy. Kukathas stresses the former, Okin the latter. I come to the conclusion that in order to protect the freedom of all, the formal right of exit strategy should be abandoned in favor of the realistic right of exit strategy. Regarding to voice, along the right of exit, everyone should also have a right to voice.
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(2013)Since the fall of the communist regime, the discussion on Hungarian autonomy in Transylvania has frequently been a bone of contention between the political representatives of this minority and those of the majority Romanians. At the same time, the debate inside the Hungarian elite of Romania as to how best to pursue this idea has created divisions even among the Hungarians of Transylvania themselves. This thesis uses Critical Discourse Analysis to observe how the two significant competing parties, the Democratic Union of Hungarian in Romania (UDMR) and the People’s Party for Magyars in Transylvania (PPMT), define autonomy and also formulate the arguments for its implementation in Transylvania. The starting point of the analysis is 2011, the date PPMT was created, moving the internal competition between UDMR’s different platforms to a party-to- party contest. The analysis combines literature on ethnic identity and autonomy, explaining how the two merge, inside the political discourse of the Hungarian elite, to create the main arguments for Hungarian autonomy. The results show that besides the concern for administrative efficiency, the plea for autonomy stems from the belief that such a form of organisation represents the institutional guarantee for the preservation of a certain Hungarian identity (Transylvanian, Szeklar etc.). As consequence, both Hungarian parties in Romania militate for decentralisation, juxtaposing the national government to the local and regional authorities in a discussion which disputes the legitimacy of the Romanian centralised state. To support their cause, the Hungarian elite references on many occasions other examples of autonomy in Europe, focusing on the Italian South Tyrol, Finland Åland region, Spanish Catalonia as well as the Serb region of Vojvodina, all of which obtained their status following agreements with the representatives of the majority population. Despite converging in their belief in the benefits of autonomy, the two Hungarian parties differ substantially in rhetoric and style of argumentation. While UDMR opts for a more nuanced discussion within the possibilities of the Romanian constitution, the People’s Party advocates a radical change which entails federalism and autonomous regions. In what can be regarded as a continuation of the inter-war ideology of Transylvanism, the People’s Party discusses autonomy in light of a perceived distinct Transylvanian identity while favouring and indicating strong relations with the kin-state Hungary and its current government. In order to bypass or speed up the negotiations with the Romanians counterparts, the Hungarian elite of Romania has turned its attention to the EU. Starting from the hypothesis that Romania’s accession in January 2007 to the status of EU’s member state has provided the Hungarian elite with new mechanisms of promoting their claims, the analysis follows the discourse referring to the possibilities as well as the limitations of the new context. The results shows that the Hungarian elite in Romania is generally dissatisfied with the tackling of ethnic minorities on European Union level and is determined to push forward for local, national, regional and European initiatives that would favour their cause.
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