Collective Agency and Cooperation in Natural and Artificial Systems

Prof. Catrin Misselhorn holds the chair for the philosophy of science and technology at the University of Stuttgart and is the director of the Institute of Philosophy. Her research is situated at the intersection of philosophy, science and technological culture. She has published numerous articles in the area of socio-technical epistemology, the philosophy of mind and the philosophy of robotics in renowned international journals, e.g., The Monist, Minds and Machines. She is directing the project “Simulating Collective Agency and Decision Processes” in the cluster of excellence SimTech (Simulation Technologies) at the University of Stuttgart.

• Part I: Concepts of Agency.- Collective Agency and Cooperation in Natural and Artificial Systems.-Cooperation with Robots? A Two-dimensional Approach.- The Participatory Turn – A Multidimensional Gradual Agency Concept for Human and Non-human Actors.- Part II: Human-machine Cooperation.- Embodied Cooperative Systems: From Tool to Partnership.- Historical, Cultural, and Aesthetic Aspects of the Uncanny Valley.- Ethical Implications Regarding Assistive Technology at Workplaces.- Some Sceptical Remarks Regarding Robot Responsibility and a Way Forward.- Part III: Collective Agency.- Planning for Collective Agency.- An Account of Boeschian Cooperative Behavior.- Choosing Appropriate Paradigmatic Examples for Understanding Collective Agency.- Can Artificial Systems be Part of a Collective Action?.- Is Collective Agency a Coherent Idea? Considerations from the Enactive Theory of Agency.- Part IV: Simulating Collective Agency and Cooperation.- Simulation as Research Method: Modeling Social Interactions in Management Science.- How Models Fail? A Critical Look at the History of Computer Simulations of Evolution in Cooperation.- Artificial Intelligence and Pro-social Behavior.