Responsibility and Anticipation (RAA) Central European Perspectives on Causality and Motivation SophiaEuropa

Responsibility and Anticipation (RAA) Central European Perspectives on Causality and Motivation SophiaEuropa

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Mitteleuropa Foundation
Bolzano

This project facilitates ethically based deliberations by addressing emerging issues and international dimensions of ethics in relation to faith and the ethical dimensions of new technologies and scientific endeavors. Exploring a wide variety of historical and contemporary contexts and interdependent domains, the group employs contemporary approaches in meta-ethics and applied ethics, aspiring to cultivate a diversified account of the levels of reality. Members seek to reconceptualize the notions of responsibility (agency) and anticipatory systems (action plans) from combined perspectives of ethics, ontology, and computer science to develop a prototype of new theoretically based, computer-supported tools for policymaking in the realms of group responsibility, global distribution, and situational dependency. Lead conveners maintain that familiar concepts of agency in the rationalist tradition cannot realistically approach the current profound issues in these domains and, therefore, that there is a profound need for developing new cross-disciplinary insights and techniques. Comprised of a consortium of over 400 leading scholars representing a multitude of fields including philosophy, psychology, ethics, economics, ontology, complex systems theory, semiotics, linguistics, sociology, phenomenology, religious studies, neuropsychology, cognitive science, engineering, and computer sciences; specific teams will focus first on the development of common language and conceptual overview and move forward into developing computer-supported anticipatory tools for decision making on ethical issues of profound, value-sensitive topics of socio-political significance. Results will be implemented into a new software agent (anticipatory agent) and a number of related computer based tools capable of providing advice and instruction for action and outcomes, according to the user’s responsibilities. In order to avoid biases or other unintended forms parochialism, the group will systematically compare Central European ideas with other cultural traditions, both Eastern and Western. In addition to the development of tools, participants will disseminate results of deliberations and research through press releases and scholarly publication; presentation at topical conferences; coursework; pursuit of relations with other related private and public institutions; student exchange initiatives among member institutions; website development; and regular electronic communication between members and other thematically linked projects of the SophiaEuropa project. The Mitteleuropa Foundation provides matching funds for this ambitious project.