John Danaher (ethicist)

John Danaher is an Irish legal scholar and philosopher specialized in the legal and ethical impacts of AI and emerging technologies on society and democracy. ^[1] He is a main proponent of ethical behaviorism for the treatment of moral status for robots. ^{[2] [3] [4]} He also published influential works on the ethics of post-work societies. ^[5]

Danaher studied law at University College Cork, where he received a Bachelor of Civil Law in 2006. This is followed by a Master of Laws in 2007 from the Trinity College Dublin and a PhD in the College of Business and Law at University College Cork in 2011. His PhD thesis was on the theories of criminal responsibility in light of scientific advances, ^[6] advised by Mary Donnelly. During this time, he was an Irish Research Council scholar. ^[7] Danaher became a lecturer at Keele University in 2011, where he stayed until 2014. He joined University of Galway in the same year, where he is currently a senior lecturer (associate professor) in the School of Law. ^[8]

Danaher is a fellow of the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies. ^[9] His works have appeared in The Atlantic, VICE: Motherboard, The Guardian ^[10] , The Irish Times, The Sunday Times, Aeon ^[11] , and The Philosophers’ Magazine. ^[12]

Bibliography

• Danaher, John; McArthur, Neil, eds. (2017-10-13). Robot Sex: Social and Ethical Implications. MIT Press. ISBN   978-0-262-34199-8.
• Danaher, John (2019-09-24). Automation and Utopia: Human Flourishing in a World without Work. Harvard University Press. ISBN   978-0-674-98424-0.
• Zerilli, John; Danaher, John; Maclaurin, James; Gavaghan, Colin; Knott, Alistair; Liddicoat, Joy; Noorman, Merel E. (2021). A citizen's guide to artificial intelligence. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press. ISBN   978-0-262-04481-3.
• Danaher, John (2022-02-14), Véliz, Carissa (ed.), "Automation and the Future of Work", Oxford Handbook of Digital Ethics, Oxford University Press, pp. 748–768, doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198857815.013.37, ISBN   978-0-19-885781-5 , retrieved 2025-11-23
• Danaher, John (2022-05-10), Vallor, Shannon (ed.), "Freedom in an Age of Algocracy", The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Technology, Oxford University Press, pp. 249–272, doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190851187.013.16, ISBN   978-0-19-085118-7 , retrieved 2025-11-23

References

1. "Algorithmic Governance and its Discontents". State Legitimacy. 2016-03-20.
2. Danaher, John (2020). "Welcoming Robots into the Moral Circle: A Defence of Ethical Behaviourism". Science and Engineering Ethics. 26 (4): 2023–2049. doi:10.1007/s11948-019-00119-x. ISSN   1353-3452.
3. Smids, Jilles (2020). "Danaher's Ethical Behaviourism: An Adequate Guide to Assessing the Moral Status of a Robot?". Science and Engineering Ethics. 26 (5): 2849–2866. doi:10.1007/s11948-020-00230-4. ISSN   1353-3452. PMC   7550363 . PMID   32557007.
4. Danaher, John. "The Case for Outsourcing Morality to AI". Wired. ISSN   1059-1028.
5. Tigard, Daniel W. (2020). "Automation and Utopia: Human Flourishing in a World without Work John Danaher, 2019, Harvard University Press". Journal of Applied Philosophy. 37 (4): 684–687. doi:10.1111/japp.12435. ISSN   0264-3758.
6. Danaher, John (2011). Theories of criminal responsibility in light of scientific advance: the problem of competing frameworks and enhanced control (Thesis).
7. Danaher, John (2010). Kelly, Alan; Allen, Graham; Murphy, Orla; Nelson, Michelle (eds.). ""What is it that you do again?": thinking about criminal responsibility". The Boolean: Snapshots of Doctoral Research at University College Cork (2010): 43–46. doi:10.33178/boolean.2010.10.
8. "John Danaher | AIRES". The AIRES.
9. Umbrello, Steven. "Fellows". IEET. Retrieved 2025-11-25.
10. McArthur, Neil; Danaher, John (2017-10-03). "How sex robots could help with the nuts and bolts of relationships". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 2025-11-25.
11. "Programmed to love: is a human-robot relationship wrong? | Aeon Essays". aeon.co.
12. "The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Technology - Author Biographies". 2020.