STEM Seminar 3: The History and Philosophy of Autonomy

The third OxNet STEM seminar was led by Dr James Read, from Pembroke College, Oxford. Discussion in this seminar focused on placing the ideas of autonomy which we had considered in a scientific and machine context in previous weeks within historical and philosophical context. Accordingly, the idea of 'autonomy' was deconstructed to illuminate the root of its meaning at various points in time and within different situations, and the implications that this may have for robotic autonomy. This was the first time that this idea that has been so central to our discussions in previous weeks has been considered in a philosophical context; this provided an invaluable consideration of the nuances of autonomy beyond machine learning.