[Lecture One] AI Companion Robots
Lecturer: Fan Ruiping (City University of Hong Kong)
Date: October 14, 2025 (Tuesday)
Time: 14:00-16:00
Venue: East Conference Room, 1st Floor, Administration Building
Report Content: Artificial intelligence robots are currently being extensively developed, widely applied, and rapidly advancing worldwide. Companion robots designed to address elderly care needs and provide services for older adults have generated significant interest across society, while simultaneously raising important ethical and public policy concerns. This lecture examines different ethical perspectives, comparing the approaches of utilitarianism, deontology, and Confucian virtue ethics regarding companion robots, and analyzes their respective strengths and weaknesses. Additionally, it distinguishes between the different implications of replacement-oriented versus assistance-oriented development models, exploring their profound impacts on human relationships, human-machine interactions, and human values.
Introduction to the Speaker: Fan Ruiping holds a Ph.D. in Philosophy from Rice University (USA) and currently serves as Chair Professor of Philosophy in the Department of Public and International Affairs at City University of Hong Kong. He holds several editorial positions, including Co-Editor-in-Chief of Sino-International Journal of Medical Philosophy (Hong Kong, China), Associate Editor of Journal of Medicine and Philosophy (USA), and Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Chinese Medical Ethics. He also serves on the editorial board of the International “Philosophy and Medicine” book series (Springer). His primary research focuses on Confucian bioethics and comparative philosophy. He has published over 100 papers in both Chinese and English.
[Lecture Two] Is Robotic Elderly Care the Solution to the Aging Problem?
Lecturer: Wang Jue (Xi’an Jiaotong University)
Date: October 14, 2025 (Tuesday)
Time: 16:10-18:10
Venue: East Conference Room, 1st Floor, Administration Building
Report Content: Robotic solutions for the aging problem follow a distinctly utilitarian approach, yet calculating costs and benefits in elderly care is extremely complex. This lecture adopts a bottom-up research approach, delving into the application landscape of elderly care robots. Using roles and relationships as entry points, it integrates fragmented application scenarios into a coherent framework, ultimately aiming to conduct a systematic ethical assessment of robotic solutions for elderly care. The lecture will argue that the development of elderly care robots faces a critical choice: should robots replace humans in fulfilling social roles that should inherently be performed by humans, or should robots be incorporated into human moral practices, serving only auxiliary and supplementary functions?
Introduction to the Speaker: Wang Jue is a Professor and Doctoral Supervisor in the Department of Philosophy at Xi’an Jiaotong University. She holds a Ph.D. in Philosophy from Peking University and conducted postdoctoral research in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame, USA. Her research focuses on phenomenology, applied ethics, and comparative philosophy. She has led two National Social Science Fund projects and one Ministry of Education Humanities and Social Science Fund project, addressing themes such as “The Body Problem in Heidegger’s Philosophy”, “Intergenerational Equity in an Aging Society”, and “Ethical Frameworks and Governance for AI Applications in Medicine”. She has published over 40 papers in prominent domestic and international academic journals, including Confucius Studies, World Philosophy, and Journal of Medicine and Philosophy. Her translated works include Against Individualism (translated work). Her current research focuses on the philosophy of artificial intelligence and technology ethics.
Source: NYNU Academic Activities (Chinese)
https://www.nynu.edu.cn/info/1048/30558.htm
