Johannes Himmelreich

Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 22(3), 731–747, 2019

Abstract

Future weapons will make life-or-death decisions without a human in the loop. When such weapons inflict unwarranted harm, no one appears to be responsible. There seems to be a responsibility gap. This paper first reconstructs the argument for such responsibility gaps and then argues that this argument is not sound. The argument assumes that commanders have no control over whether autonomous weapons inflict harm. The paper argues against this assumption. Although this investigation concerns a specific case of autonomous weapons systems, the paper takes steps towards vindicating the more general idea that superiors can be morally responsible in virtue of being in command.