Particularism and the Classification and Reclassification of Moral Cases

  • Authors:
  • Marcello Guarini

  • Affiliations:
  • University of Windsor

  • Venue:
  • IEEE Intelligent Systems
  • Year:
  • 2006

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Abstract

Is it possible to learn to classify cases as morally acceptable or unacceptable without using moralprinciples? Jonathan Dancy has suggested that moral reasoning (including learning) could be done withoutmoral principles, and he has suggested that neural network models could aid in understanding how to dothis. This article explores Dancy's suggestion by presenting a neural network model of case classification.The author argues that although some nontrivial case classification might be possible without theexplicitly consulting or executing moral principles, the process of reclassifying cases is best explainedby using moral principles.This article is part of a special issue on Machine Ethics.