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]

Life

Danaher studied law at University College Cork, where he received a Bachelor of Civil Law in 2006. This was followed by a Master of Laws in 2007 from Trinity College Dublin, and a PhD after study at the College of Business and Law of 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. (13 October 2017). Robot Sex: Social and Ethical Implications. MIT Press. ISBN   978-0-262-34199-8.
• Danaher, John (24 September 2019). 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 (14 February 2022), 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 23 November 2025
• Danaher, John (10 May 2022), 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 23 November 2025

References

1. "Algorithmic Governance and its Discontents". State Legitimacy. 20 March 2016.
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 25 November 2025.
10. McArthur, Neil; Danaher, John (3 October 2017). "How sex robots could help with the nuts and bolts of relationships". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 25 November 2025.
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.