Karoline Reinhardt, Professor of Applied Ethics at the University of Passau and host of the 11th Conference on Practical Philosophy, welcoming the participants.
A journalist chats with a programme that suddenly confesses its love for him. A woman falls in love with a chatbot and gets engaged to it. A pensioner regularly talks to a chatbot about the Bible.
These are just a few examples of new forms of relationships between humans and artificial intelligence that have made headlines in the past and that Professor Eva Weber-Guskar, a philosopher, also addresses in her plenary lecture at the Conference on Practical Philosophy at the University of Passau. More and more users of so-called intelligent systems claim to have friendships or even romantic relationships with digital avatars. Apps like Replika, which are based on Large Language Models (LLMs), even advertise the fact that the chatbot simulates a virtual boyfriend or girlfriend.
Eva Weber-Guskar, Heisenberg Professor of Ethics and Philosophy of Emotions at the Institute of Philosophy at Ruhr University Bochum, gave a plenary lecture at the conference on practical philosophy at the University of Passau.
Can social chatbots have emotions? No, says Professor Weber-Guskar, who researches the ethics and philosophy of emotions at the University of Bochum. You can't assume that they think or feel, because in the end they are just an output of words that are produced according to a calculated statistical fit, which is partly regulated in terms of content. Conversely, it is very much the case that people do develop feelings. How can this new phenomenon be described philosophically in an appropriate way? In her talk, the researcher presented several approaches, including the so-called fictional one. According to this approach, humans and machines enter into a role-playing game of the kind familiar from theatre or film. In contrast to theatre and film, however, people interact with the fictional character. This is not problematic in itself, but it can only partially capture the new relationships between humans and artificial intelligence.
Problems arise when people make the chatbot their constant companion. Then reality and fiction become blurred and there is a risk of losing touch with reality. To counteract this, Professor Weber-Guskar believes it is important to develop a new kind of emotionality towards the chatbot and to perceive it as what it really is: a new kind of real conversation partner - without mind or feelings. From the philosopher's point of view, this has been achieved in the example of a pensioner who regularly chats with an AI pastor about theological questions.
The relationship between humans and artificial intelligence was one of many topics at the 11th Conference on Practical Philosophy, held for the first time at the University of Passau. On 19 and 20 September, researchers gave 200 talks on the pressing issues of our time, such as those relating to artificial intelligence, democracy and climate change. More than 230 participants from all across the German-speaking areas attended.
Impressions from the Conference on Practical Philosophy
Tools for critical reflection
"Practical philosophy does not shy away from the complex problems of our time and seeks answers to pressing questions," emphasised Karoline Reinhardt, Professor of Applied Ethics at the University of Passau, who organised the conference together with her colleague Professor Birgit Beck from the Technical University of Berlin. The representative of the University of Passau's Executive Board was pleased that the format had been brought to Passau. After ten years in Salzburg, the conference has now found a new home in Passau," said Professor Jan H. Schumann, Vice-President for Research. He added that the town was an "excellent place" for the Philosophy Conference because of the intense and passionate engagement with philosophy here, for example with the citizens in the beer garden on the subject of Kant's texts.
With its dense programme, the conference would illuminate the entire spectrum of practical philosophy and discuss important questions of AI and digitalisation ethics as well as sustainability. "You are making an important contribution to the great challenges of our time, which cannot be solved by technological developments alone, but to which your discipline can and must provide important impetus." Professor Schumann emphasised the importance of the conference for young researchers to present their initial approaches and ideas and to benefit from discussions with more experienced researchers.
Only by continually introducing philosophical thinking and critical reflection skills into current scientific discourse will we be able to solve the global and local problems of the present."
Professor Jan-Oliver Decker, Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Cultural Studies
The free exchange of ideas on an even playing field in an open and hierarchy-free atmosphere was also praised by the Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Cultural Studies at the University of Passau, Professor Jan-Oliver Decker. The media scientist emphasised the importance of philosophy as one of the key basic and bridging subjects for many other disciplines, as well as in the context of today's challenges: "Only by continually introducing philosophical thinking and critical reflection skills into current scientific discourse will we be able to solve the global and local problems of the present." He asked who, if not philosophy, had the necessary tools to do this.
The first plenary lecture was given by Christian Seidel, Professor at the Department of Philosophy at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology.
The interdisciplinary character of the event and the close involvement of young scientists contributed significantly to the complexity and liveliness of the debates. The two plenary lectures were central to the conference. In addition to Professor Weber-Guskars lecture on chatbots and emotions, Professor Christian Seidel from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology spoke about the concept of neglecting the future.
The philosopher discussed the question of what attitude one should have towards the future of other people and how seriously one should take it. The term "Zukunftsvergessenheit", "future-forgetfulness", is often used to criticise political decisions that disregard the future. At the same time, Seidel argued that forgetting the future can sometimes be a rational or even necessary attitude, especially when excessive concern for the future weighs on one's own life. In a sharp-witted analysis, he explored the cases in which forgetting the future could be morally and rationally required to preserve the ideal of a good life.
About the Conference on Practical Philosophy
The Conference on Practical Philosophy, launched in Salzburg in 2013, is one of the most important events in this field in the German-speaking world. It takes place annually and provides a forum for exchange between established and young researchers, including beyond the boundaries of philosophy. Since 2024, the conference has been organised by a team led by Professor Karoline Reinhardt from the University of Passau in cooperation with Professor Birgit Beck from the Technical University of Berlin, Dr Gottfried Schweiger from the Paris Lodron University of Salzburg and Professor Michael Zichy from the Friedrich Wilhelms University of Bonn.
More information
This text was machine-translated from German.
Professor Karoline Reinhardt
What kind of ethical questions are raised by of social and political transformation?
What kind of ethical questions are raised by of social and political transformation?
Professor Karoline Reinhardt is Junior Professor for Applied Ethics at the University of Passau. Before taking on her position at the University of Passau, she was a PostDoctoral fellow at the Ethics & Philosophy Lab of the DFG Cluster of Excellence “Machine Learning: New Perspectives for Science” and the International Center for Ethics in the Sciences and Humanities at the University of Tübingen. Previous to that, she held research and teaching positions at universities in Ankara, Graz, New Orleans, and Munich. She is a member of the Young Academy of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences. In September 2024, she received the Kant Young Talent Award from the Kant Society and the Fondazione Silvestro Marcucci.
