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Distributed Morality in an Information Society
Open accessAbstract
The phenomenon of distributed knowledge is well-known in epistemic logic. In this paper, a similar phenomenon in ethics, somewhat neglected so far, is investigated, namely distributed morality. The article explains the nature of distributed morality, as a feature of moral agency, and explores the implications of its occurrence in advanced information societies. In the course of the analysis, the concept of infraethics is introduced, in order to refer to the ensemble of moral enablers, which, although morally neutral per se, can significantly facilitate or hinder both positive and negative moral behaviours.
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“Moreover, AI-driven decisions may be amalgamated from factors that are not of obvious ethical importance, and yet collectively constitute unfairly biased decision-making (Pedreshi et al. 2008; Floridi 2012).”
From How to Design AI for Social Good: Seven Essential Factors (2020) · cites this paper as Floridi 2012
In the citing paper
“Even for non-learning algorithms, traditional, linear conceptions of responsibility prove to offer limited guidance in contemporary sociotechnical contexts.”
From The ethics of algorithms: key problems and solutions (2022) · cites this paper as Floridi 2012
In the citing paper
“Wider sociotechnical structures make it difficult to trace back responsibility for actions performed by distributed, hybrid systems of human and artificial agents (Floridi 2012;Crain 2018).”
From The ethics of algorithms: key problems and solutions (2022) · cites this paper as Floridi 2012
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Citations
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The grand challenges of Science Robotics
Yang, G.-Z., Bellingham, J., Dupont, P. E., Fischer, P., Floridi, L., Full, R., Jacobstein, N., Kumar, V., McNutt, M., Merrifield, R., et al. (2018) · Science Robotics · doi:10.1126/scirobotics.aar7650 · Cited by 1,177
Self-citationThe ethics of AI in health care: A mapping review
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Self-citationOn the ethics of algorithmic decision-making in healthcare
Grote, T., & Berens, P. (2020) · Journal of Medical Ethics · doi:10.1136/medethics-2019-105586 · Cited by 551
Metadata
- Authors
- Floridi, L.
- Affiliations
- University of Hertfordshire (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Floridi, Luciano
- ORCID
- Floridi, Luciano
- Venue
- Science and Engineering Ethics
- Published
- 2012-11-30
- Volume
- 19
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 727-743
- ISSN
- 1353-3452 (ISSN-L)
- 1471-5546
- OpenAlex
- W1991112424
- Cited by
- 201
- References
- 57
- Citations by year
- 2026: 13 · 2025: 13 · 2024: 21 · 2023: 35 · 2022: 12 · 2021: 16 · 2020: 17 · 2019: 18 · 2018: 8 · 2017: 14 · 2016: 14 · 2015: 8 · 2014: 9 · 2013: 1 · 2012: 2
- FWCI
- 56.42
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- philarchive.org
- Licence
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- Science and Engineering Ethics (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PhilPapers (PhilPapers Foundation) (submittedVersion)
- University of Hertfordshire Research Archive (University of Hertfordshire) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Philosophy › Philosophical Ethics and Theory
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Artificial Intelligence › Ethics and Social Impacts of AI
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management › Ethics in Business and Education
- Keywords
- distributed knowledge, moral agency, information society, moral behavior, ethics of technology
- MeSH terms
- Group Processes, Humans, Morals, Moral Obligations
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