Political Philosophy for the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence: A Conversation with American Philosopher Carl Mitcham

Technologos. 2024. No. 4. P. 5–18.

Mitcham C., Alexander V. Mikhailovsky, Seredkina E.

Carl Mitcham (born 1941) is Professor Emeritus of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences at the Colorado School of Mines and occasional visiting professor at universities in China. He has made significant contributions to the development of such important philosophical areas as the philosophy of technology, the philosophy of engineering, the political philosophy of technology, and technical ethics. One of his greatest strengths is that he has an excellent knowledge of not only the European philosophical tradition but also the Chinese one. He evidently helps build a bridge between the East and the West. In the modern era of geopolitical chaos, this is especially important. In recent years, Professor Mitcham has been focusing on the problem of the ethics of artificial intelligence, which he discusses at various philosophical events in the USA, Europe, and China. One of the contributors to this paper managed to listen to his several talks on this topic in April 2024 in Beijing and Shanghai. In this regard, the idea of an interview was born, which was eventually transformed into a meaningful philosophical conversation. The main idea of Professor Mitcham's is that ethics alone is not enough and needs to be complemented by politics. Ethics and political philosophy are simply two parts of the same study of the human good. The problem of the ethics of artificial intelligence also needs to be supported by political philosophy. Overall, this conversation raises the question of the possibility of a political philosophy of technology. In the perspective of a multipolar world, it draws attention to the need to take into account cultural characteristics and national traditions of thought in the political philosophy and ethics of AI.

Keywords: Aristotle, Аристотель, многополярность, philosophy of engineering, multipolar world, этика ИИ, AI ethics, Political philosophy of technology, Политическая философия техники, философия инженерии