Arzu Formánek, BSc in Mathematics, MA in Philosophy

Arzu Formánek, BSc in Mathematics, MA in Philosophy


Arzu Formánek
Department of Philosophy
University of Vienna
Universitätsstraße 7 (NIG)
1010 Vienna


Mail: arzu.formanek@univie.ac.at

 

  • Researcher at Fraunhofer IPA-Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation
  • PhD Candidate at University of Vienna

 

Areas of Specialization

Philosophy of Technology and Science  |  Philosophy of Engineering  |  Human-Machine Interaction  |  Robot Ethics  |  Cognitive Science  |  Social Interaction and Cognition  |  Interactivism  |  Automation and Industrial Design  |  Models and Knowledge in Engineering  |  Intelligence.

 

PhD within FoNTI-Project

Does it matter how we humans treat social robots and if so why does it matter? In the current literature, there are arguments for and against the direct and indirect moral status of robots. Here indirectness indicates that robots are not moral patients per se, thus, we don’t morally owe them anything for their own sake; rather, because of what we owe to ourselves and to other direct moral patients (humans, animals, environment etc), actions towards robots become morally relevant.

I don’t think that robots (which are developed based on the current paradigm of robotics and AI) can have a direct moral status—not in any substantial way. Rather, I argue that there are certain sufficient reasons for social robots to be given an indirect moral standing. That is, it matters to us how we treat robots, although it doesn’t and cannot matter to robots. And I derive reasons for this indirect status from the nature of our social interactions and social cognition, the way we come-to-be and maintain-to-be social beings and how this mechanism work in our cognition of sociality of robots.

Supervisors: Mark Coeckelbergh, Mark Bickhard

Advisors: Sven Nyholm

 

Research Networks

Executive Board Member of IACAP-International Association of Computing and Philosophy

Co-Founder & Organizer at Ethics of Technology Early-career Group (ETEG)

Co-Founder of Society for Practical Philosophy

Member & Organizer at Research Group: Philosophy of Media and Technology

 

Past & Upcoming Talks

  • 10.2024 // Invited Talk in Jülich Speaker Series in the Philosophy of Technology: Talk Title: "Robotic Affordance Mixtures and the ‘Kickable’ Challenge to Anthropomorphism in Early Robot Ethics".
  • 09.2024 // fPET 2024-Forum on Philosophy, Engineering, and Technology: Talk Title: "Are Biointelligent Systems Intelligent? The Onion Model for Biointelligence, and Philosophy of Intelligence".
  • 08.2024 // Robophilosophy Conference 2024: Talk Title: "Versatile Interactions with Robotic Affordances: Using the OASIS Framework and Sociomorphing to Bring Differentiation in the Indirect Moral Patiency Debate".
  • 07.2024 // IACAP-International Association of Computing and Philosophy Conference: Talk Title: "Are Biointelligent Systems Intelligent? Theoretical Challenges to Technology and Philosophy of Intelligence".
  • 06.2024 // Invited Guest Lecture in Introduction to Ethics of Robotics by Mark Coeckelbergh: Talk Title: "Indirect Robot Moral Patiency Debate and How to Bring in Cognitive Scientific Perspectives".
  • 12.2023 // Philosophy of AI Conference (PhAI 2023): Talk Title: "Is it wrong to kick Kickable 3.0? An affordance based approach to ethics of human-robot interaction". Centre for Philosophy and AI Research, FAU.
  • 08.2023 // MDAC Workshop-Machine Discovery and Creation: Talk Title: "Taking a Photograph, Making a Photograph, Generating a Photograph: an Ecological and Interactivist Approach to Photograph(er) as an Art(ist)". Leibniz University Hannover.
  • 07.2023 // IACAP-International Association of Computing and Philosophy Conference: Talk Title: "Is it wrong to kick Kickable 3.0? An affordance based approach to ethics of human-robot interaction".
  • 10.2022 // ESDIT-Ethics of Socially Disruptive Technologies Conference: Talk Title: "Problems with the Indirect Moral Patiency of Robots"--received the Best Talk Award.
  • 07.2022 // IACAP-International Association of Computing and Philosophy Conference: Talk Title: "Problems with the Indirect Moral Patiency of Robots"
  • 11.2021 // Utrecht University "Robot Rights?!" Workshop: Talk Title: "Basing the Indirect Moral Patienthood of Robots on Sociomorphing". (Invited talk)
  • 07.2021 // The Philosophy and Ethics of Artificial Intelligence (CEPE/IACAP 2021): Talk Title: "Ethical Behaviourism: Yet Another Property Based Approach for Machine Moral Status?" (Cancelled).
  • 06.2021 // The Society for Philosophy and Technology Conference (SPT-2021): Talk Title: "Implications of Sociomorphing for the Moral Status of Robots".
  • 02.2021 // R. L. Rabb Symposium on Embedding AI in Society: Talk Title: "The Moral Status of Machines: A Critical Assessment of the Properties Approach and the Behavioral Criterion", NC State University, USA.
  • 11.2019 // SAS19’: The Society of Learning Algorithms: Talk Title: "Human-Machine Interactions: Relation between Emergent Sociality, Moral Recognition and Moral Development", HLRS, Germany.
  • 10.2019 // Graduate Student Philosophy Workshop: Talk Title: "Machine ethics: questions and objectives", Bogazici University, Istanbul, Turkey.
  • 07.2019 // Third Immanuel Kant International Summer School: Talk Title: "Predictive Processing and Transcendental Idealism", Kaliningrad, Russia.
  • 12.2018 // CIFAR Winter School of Neuroscience of Consciousness: Talk Title: "Intelligence vs Consciousness" (group presentation), Montebello, Canada.
  • 09.2018 // OpenSelf 2018: Talk Title: "Extended Self: Redefining the 'Others', arguing from Dynamical Systems and Free-energy Principle" (poster presentation), Berlin, Germany.

 

Publications

 

  • Formanek, Arzu (forthcoming). “Ecological Cognition and Robotic Affordance Mixtures in HRI: The ‘Kickable’ Challenge to Vice-Virtue Asymmetry of Moral Status”. In: Müller, V. C., Dewey, A. R., Dung, L., & Löhr, G. (Eds.). (forthcoming). Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence: The State of the Art. Synthese Library, Berlin: Springer Nature.
  • Formanek, Arzu (forthcoming). “Is it wrong to kick Kickable? Sociomorphing and robotic affordance mixtures for differentiation in moral status”. In: Seibt et al.  Robophilosophy 2024, Frontiers of Artificial Intelligence and Applications. IOS Press.
  • Gokmen, Arzu (2018). "Institutional Facts and AMAs in Society", Vincent C. Müller (ed.): Philosophy and Theory of Artificial Intelligence 2017; SAPERE 44; Berlin: Springer, pp. 248-251.