The Argument from Autonomy Revisited

Since the problem of autonomy is a fundamental philosophical issue of Artificial Intelligence, our goal in this paper is to revise the Argument from Autonomy with the help of some distinctions extracted from a broader framework of discussions in philosophy. We make a revision of the Argument from Autonomy by making a series of distinctions between agents, programs, and between the origins and exercises of autonomy. The goal is twofold: to clarify the meaning of autonomy in the context of AI and, given that, to suggest some ideas to rethink autonomy in artificial agents as well as in rational agency in general.