Supernaturalism Seminar: Stanisław Krajewski, "Can a Robot be Grateful?"

Stanisław Krajewski Delivers his talk 'Can a Robot be Grateful?' for the 2016-2017 Humane Philosophy Project/Ian Ramsey Centre seminar at the Blackfriars Hall, University of Oxford.

Computer enthusiasts point towards a new Pythagoreanism. Most of us try to retain the belief in the permanence of the human superiority over robots. To justify this, Gödel’s theorem has been invoked, but this is not sufficient. The realm of human relations and attitudes seems more promising. Insights from the philosophy of dialogue can help. They suggest an ultimate extension of the Turing test. It seems that in order to justify the belief in human superiority one must rely on individual experience pointing to a religious realm.

Stanisław Krajewski is a professor at the Institute of Philosophy of the University of Warsaw and currently chairs the institute’s Academic Council. He has conducted research in logic and the philosophy of mathematics as well as in the philosophy of dialogue, Jewish thought, and interreligious dialo

gue. He has co-authored the post-war section of the core exhibition in the Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw. His books include Gödel’s Theorem and Its Philosophical Interpretations: from Mechanism to Post-modernism; Does Mathematics Belong to the Humanities?; and Theology in Mathematics?. Some of his papers are available here.