Projects per year
Personal profile
Quote
“It makes sense to attribute significant forms of agency to many current robotic technologies. But this agency is typically best seen as a type of collaborative agency, in which the other key partners are humans.”
Research profile
Sven Nyholm is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Ethics at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e). His main areas of research are applied ethics (especially the ethics of technology), ethical theory, and the history of ethics. More specifically, he has recently published on love-relationships and biomedical enhancements, sex robots, motivation-enhancements, accident-algorithms for self-driving cars, deep brain stimulation, happiness and well-being, meaning in life, and interpersonal respect and moral reasoning.
Nyholm’s work also focuses on the ethics of automated driving, human-robot collaboration, deep brain stimulation (including its effect on the self), and disability and the goods of life. He is especially interested in how robotization and other types of automation affect traditional human values, as well as in existential questions raised by new technological developments.
Academic background
Sven Nyholm received his PhD from the University of Michigan in 2012. His dissertation, on Kant’s ethics, was awarded the Proquest Distinguished Dissertation Award. A revised version, with the title Revisiting Kant’s Universal Law and Humanity Formulas, was published in book form by De Gruyter in 2015. Before joining the faculty at TU/e in 2015, Nyholm worked at the University of Cologne for three years. Nyholm’s undergraduate education was at Lund University in Sweden, where he received a BA and an MA in philosophy in 2005.
His articles have appeared in general philosophy journals, ethics journals, and bioethics journals including Journal of the American Philosophical Association, European Journal of Philosophy, Metaphilosophy, Ethical Theory and Moral Practice, Journal of Applied Philosophy and The Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics. A co-authored article (on happiness) appeared in the first volume of the Oxford Studies in Experimental Philosophy. More recently, a co-authored article on love and sex robots appeared in an anthology on Robot Sex published by the MIT Press.
Nyholm is currently writing a second book (under contract with Rowman & Littlefield International), about the ethics of responsible human-robot interaction, with a special focus on the human tendency to anthropomorphize robots.
Fingerprint Fingerprint is based on mining the text of the person's scientific documents to create an index of weighted terms, which defines the key subjects of each individual researcher.
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Projects 2018 2019
- 1 Active
Working ‘with’ or ‘against’ the machine? Optimizing human-robot collaboration in logistic warehouses
Jansen, R., Jansen, R., Nyholm, S., Nyholm, S., Gerrits, E., Vereggen - Tielemans, T., Vereggen - Tielemans, T. & Smids, J.
1/04/18 → 30/09/19
Project: Research direct
Research Output 2014 2018
From sex robots to love robots: is mutual love with a robot possible?
Nyholm, S. R. & Frank, L. E., 1 Oct 2017, Robot sex: social and ethical implications. Danaher, J. & McArthur, N. (eds.). Cambridge: MIT PressResearch output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter › Academic › peer-review
Deep brain stimulation, continuity over time, and the true self
Nyholm, S. R. & O'Neill, E. R. H., 16 Sep 2016, In : Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics. 25, 4, p. 647-658 12 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review
The ethics of accident-algorithms for self-driving cars: an applied trolley problem?
Nyholm, S. R. & Smids, J., 1 Nov 2016, In : Ethical Theory and Moral Practice. 19, 5, p. 1275–1289 16 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review
Love troubles: Human attachment and biomedical enhancements
Nyholm, S., May 2015, In : Journal of Applied Philosophy. 32, 2, p. 190-202Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review
Kant's universal law formula revisited
Nyholm, S., 1 Apr 2015, In : Metaphilosophy. 46, 2, p. 280-299 20 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review
Prizes
ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Award
Sven Nyholm (Recipient), 2012
Recognition: Other › Career, activity or publication related prizes (lifetime, best paper, poster etc.) › Scientific
Activities 2016 2018
Human Minds meet Artificial Intelligence: Challenges and Opportunities for Ethical AI
Sven Nyholm (Speaker)Activity: Talk or presentation types › Invited talk › Scientific
Theory of Mind and the 'True Self'
Sven Nyholm (Speaker)Activity: Talk or presentation types › Invited talk › Scientific
The Quantified Relationship
Sven Nyholm (Speaker)Activity: Talk or presentation types › Invited talk › Scientific
Artificial Agency, Human Responsibility: an “existential” problem
Sven Nyholm (Speaker)Activity: Talk or presentation types › Contributed talk › Scientific
Artificial Agency, Human Responsibility
Sven Nyholm (Speaker)Activity: Talk or presentation types › Keynote talk › Scientific
Courses
Press / Media
"De toekomst van seks: 'Mensen zijn snel bereid om iets menselijks te zien in robots'" (Article about sex robots in the Belgian magazine Knack)
9/01/19
1 media contribution
Press/Media: Expert Comment
Sven Nyholm e Stefano Mancuso: fraternizziamo con robot e piante
5/10/18
1 media contribution
Press/Media: Expert Comment
"Episode #40 – Nyholm on Accident Algorithms and the Ethics of Self-Driving Cars"
29/06/18
1 media contribution
Press/Media: Public Engagement Activities
"Philosophy 247" podcast interview on "robot love"
16/01/18
1 media contribution
Press/Media: Public Engagement Activities
The Ethics of Self-driving Cars and Accident Scenarios
1/09/17
1 media contribution
Press/Media: Public Engagement Activities