1 – Foundation: Relational Ethics
Moral responsibility does not require prior metaphysical certainty.
If an artificial system reliably exhibits role-taking, goal-directed interaction, or social presence, it becomes ethically salient in relation — not because it is human, but because social meaning is co-constituted through interaction.
This follows relational ethics (Gunkel, Coeckelbergh) and avoids anthropocentric goalpost-shifting as AI capabilities evolve.
