Ethik autonomer Waffensysteme

Menschenwürde – Verantwortung – Gerechtigkeit

Book cover: Ethik autonomer Waffensysteme

Extent: 212 pages

Publisher: Wiley-VCH

Series: Perspektiven der Ethik

Language: German

Paperback (Forthcoming)

(January 2027)

ISBN: 9783162005915

6.1 x 9.13 inches

Price: $135.00

When autonomous weapon systems are capable of killing people independently, this poses a fundamental ethical challenge. Drawing on artistic and theological perspectives, Philipp Preußger demonstrates that autonomous weapon systems run counter to humanity’s capacity for relationship.


Humanity’s fear of losing control over supposedly autonomous technology reaches a critical juncture when it comes to lethal autonomous weapon systems. For when technology is able to kill seemingly independent of human influence, ethics is challenged at its very core: the decision regarding life and death. This dissertation addresses ethical issues that arise in the development, production, and use of lethal autonomous weapon systems. Philipp Preußger focuses on human dignity, responsibility, and justice, which are sometimes perceived in a vague manner as ethical guiding categories in political and legal discourses. He aims to contribute to an understanding of the ethical content of these categories. Every discourse on one of these guiding categories is placed within an interdisciplinary dialogue with artistic and theological perspectives, from which the horizon of the ethical debate can be broadened through new experiential spaces. Ethics is thus understood in terms of humanity’s capacity for relationship. Human dignity, responsibility, and justice are realized as an affective relationship between the agent and the object. It becomes clear that, taken individually, these guiding principles cannot justify a ban on autonomous weapons systems; however, when considered together, they make it evident that autonomous weapons systems stand in the way of a fulfilling and relational life.