Raul Hakli,University of Helsinki, FI
Pekka Mäkela, University of Helsinki, FI
We study whether robots can satisfy the conditions for agents fit to be held responsible in a normative sense, with a focus on autonomy and self-control. An analogy between robots and human groups enables us to modify arguments con- cerning collective responsibility for studying questions of robot responsibility. On the basis of Alfred R. Mele’s history-sensitive account of autonomy and responsi- bility it can be argued that even if robots were to have all the capacities usually re- quired of moral agency, their history as products of engineering would undermine their autonomy and thus responsibility.
