Sven Nyholm is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Ethics at the Eindhoven University of Technology. He 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 of it, 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 was a wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter at the University of Cologne in Germany during three years (2012-2015).
Nyholm’s 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, motivation-enhancements, self-driving cars, sex robots, deep brain stimulation, happiness and well-being, meaning in life, and interpersonal respect and moral reasoning. 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 Ethics, The Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics, etc.). Nyholm has also tried his hand at experimental philosophy, resulting in a co-authored article (on happiness) that appeared in the first volume of the Oxford Studies in Experimental Philosophy.
Currently, Nyholm is working on the ethics of automated driving, human-robot collaboration, deep brain stimulation (including its effect on the self), the ordinary concept(s) of “true love”, and disability and the goods of life. Together with organizational psychologists Pascale Le Blanc and Sonja Rispens, Nyholm is also currently conducting an NWO-MVI project on robots in the workplace and their effects on human well-being and meaningful work. This project has two postdocs: Jilles Smids (ethics and philosophy) and Hannah Berkers (psychology). More info here: https://ethicsandtechnology.eu/spotlight/tu-e-researchers-dr-sven-nyholm-dr-pascale-le-blanc-and-dr-sonja-rispens-project-working-with-or-against-the-machine-optimizing-human-robot-co/
Selected publications:
Forthcoming:
Other Minds, Other Intelligences: The Problem of Attributing Agency to Machines, Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics
Automated Cars Meet Human Drivers: Responsible Human-Robot Coordination and The Ethics of Mixed Traffic (co-author: Jilles Smids), Ethics and Information Technology
2018:
Attributing Agency to Automated Systems: Reflections on Human-Robot Collaborations and Responsibility-Loci, Science and Engineering Ethics
The Ethics of Crashes with Self-Driving Cars: A Roadmap I, Philosophy Compass
The Ethics of Crashes with Self-Driving Cars: A Roadmap II, Philosophy Compass
Teaching and Learning Guide for “The Ethics of Crashes with Self-Driving Cars: A Roadmap, I-II”, Philosophy Compass
Pettit on Love and Its Value: A Critical Assessment, Moral Philosophy and Politics
Is the Personal Identity Debate a “Threat” to Neurosurgical Patients? A Reply to Müller et al., Neuroethics
The Quantified Relationship (co-authors: John Danaher & Brian Earp), American Journal of Bioethics
The Benefits and Risks of Quantified Relationship Technologies: Response to Commentaries (co-authors: John Danaher & Brian Earp), American Journal of Bioethics
2017:
From Sex-Robots to Love-Robots: Is Mutual Love with a Robot Possible? (co-author: Lily Frank) in J. Danaher & N. McArthur (Eds.) Robot Sex: Social and Ethical Implications, MIT Press
Deep Brain Stimulation, Authenticity and Value: Further Reflections (co-author: Elizabeth O’Neill), Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics
Robot Sex and Consent: Is consent to sex between a robot and a human conceivable, possible, and desirable? (co-author: Lily Frank) Artificial Intelligence and Law
Do We Always Act on Maxims? Kantian Review
Review of Iddo Landau, Finding Meaning in an Imperfect World (co-author: Stephen M. Campbell) (Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews)
Review of Clark et al. (Eds.), The Ethics of Human Enhancement: Understanding the Debate (co-author: Stephen M. Campbell) (Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews)
2016:
The Normative and Evaluative Status of Moral Distress in Health Care Contexts, American Journal of Bioethics
The Ethics of Accident-Algorithms for Self-Driving Cars: An Applied Trolley Problem? (co-author: Jilles Smids) Ethical Theory and Moral Practice
When is Deep Brain Stimulation a Medical Benefit, and What is Required for Consent? (co-author Stephen M. Campbell) AJOB Neuroscience
Deep Brain Stimulation, Continuity over Time, and the True Self, (co-author: Elizabeth O’Neill), Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics
On Kant’s Idea of Humanity as an End in Itself, European Journal of Philosophy
2015:
Anti-Meaning and Why It Matters (co-author: Stephen M. Campbell), Journal of the American Philosophical Association
Revisiting Kant’s Universal Law and Humanity Formulas, Berlin: De Gruyter
Reason with me: “Confabulation” and Interpersonal Moral Reasoning, Ethical Perspectives 22 (2): 315-332
The Medicalization of Love and Narrow and Broad Conceptions of Human Well-being, Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 24 (3):337-346
Love Troubles: Human Attachment and Biomedical Enhancements, Journal of Applied Philosophy 31 (2):190-202
Kant’s Universal Law Formula Revisited, Metaphilosophy 46 (2):280-299
Motivation-Enhancements and Domain-Specific Values, American Journal of Bioethics Neuroscience 6 (1):37-39
2014:
The Good in Happiness (co-authors: Jonathan Phillips and Shen-Yi Liao), in Tania Lombrozo, Shaun Nichols & Joshua Knobe (eds.), Oxford Studies in Experimental Philosophy, Volume 1, Oxford: Oxford University Press: 253–293
Just Freedom? Review of Philip Pettit’s Just Freedom, Res Publica 20 (4):441-445
Review of Lorraine Besser-Jones’s Eudaimonic Ethics: The Philosophy and Psychology of Living Well, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews
Review of Ingmar Persson’s From Morality to the End of Reason, Utilitas 26 (3):321-325
Blog-Contributions and other short writings:
“Could there be mutual love between humans and robots?”, available on the “Bij Nader Inzien” blog, here: https://bijnaderinzien.org/2018/06/07/can-there-be-mutual-love-between-humans-and-robots/
The Ethics of Self-driving Cars and Accident Scenarios (in “De Filosoof”): http://fufxl.nl/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/De-Filosoof-75.pdf
“Can We Learn Anything about Self-Driving Cars by Considering the ‘Trolley Problem’?”, on the “Bij Nader Inzien” blog, available here: https://bijnaderinzien.org/2017/01/26/can-we-learn-anything-about-self-driving-cars-by-considering-the-trolley-problem/
Podcast-appearances:
Interview on the Philosophical Disquisitions podcast: “Nyholm on Accident Algorithms and the Ethics of Self-Driving Cars”: https://philosophicaldisquisitions.blogspot.com/2018/06/episode-40-nyholm-on-accident.html
Interview on the Philosophy 247 podcast on “robot love”: http://www.philosophy247.org/podcasts/robot-love/
Interview on the Philosophical Disquisitions podcast on “Love Enhancement, Deep Brain Stimulation and the Ethics of Self Driving Cars”: http://philosophicaldisquisitions.blogspot.nl/2016/05/episode-3-sven-nyholm-on-love.html
Recent and Upcoming PhD-Courses:
Philosophy of Risk, November 2018
Ethical Theory and Moral Practice (co-organized with Sem de Maagt), April 2018