Ethical approaches and autonomous systems

Abstract

In this paper we consider how the three main approaches to ethics – deontology, consequentialism and virtue ethics – relate to the implementation of ethical agents. We provide a description of each approach and how agents might be implemented by designers following the different approaches. Although there are numerous examples of agents implemented within the consequentialist and deontological approaches, this is not so for virtue ethics. We therefore propose a novel means of implementing agents within the virtue ethics approach. It is seen that each approach has its own particular strengths and weaknesses when considered as the basis for implementing ethical agents, and that the different approaches are appropriate to different kinds of system.