Philosophy Course: Work in the Age of AI

Philosophy. Study the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality and existence.

COVID-19 update: arrangement of our courses

We are now delivering courses online and in-person. Please check the delivery format of each class before enrolling.

Please note that course materials (excluding prescribed texts) are shared electronically within 48 hours of course commencement. Printing is not available.

With the introduction of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the increasing use of new technologies in many workplaces, the idea of ‘work’ is receiving new attention in philosophy. This course will look at the contribution of many philosophers past and present to the issues such as:

• Is work important to human flourishing and our sense of a meaningful life?
• How is ‘work’ different to ‘leisure’?
• What are the elements which make work more than an economic necessity?
• What would a post-work world look like?

Aims

The aim of the course is to provide you with a new perspectives on the world of ‘work’. These perspectives can be used as tools to think through ideas about the importance of work in our personal lives; the role of work for the society in which we live and the global world we inhabit.

Outcomes

By the end of this course, you should be able to:

• understand key concepts in the philosophy of work, and their relation to other concepts such as labour and leisure
• discuss your insights into the history and anthropology of work as different types of work emerged
• read extracts from the key theorists, both ancient and modern
• relate your ideas to the contemporary world and current issues
• discuss many of the ideas on work as they apply to your personal life and work.

Content

Introduction of concepts

We begin with a discussion of the concept ‘work’ drawing on philosophers ancient and modern. Aristotle’s “axiology of work” has been enormously influential historically and continues to resonate today. Aristotle is firmly committed to a hierarchical view of the worth of occupations. This means that, on this view, some types of activity are simply more worthy of choice, or more desirable to do, than others. Leisure for Aristotle, though personally important for the individual’s wellbeing, lacks the objective value of work for and with others in the collective polis.

The Christian tradition

The Christian tradition contains several different views of work, including that work is punishment for human sin; a vocation to carry out God’s will; and a way of showing one’s ‘elect’ status (the ‘Protestant work ethic’).

The modern world

The onset of the Industrial Revolution, and the adverse working conditions of industrial labour, sparked renewed philosophical interest in work. Most prominently, in Marxist critiques of work and labour that predict the alienation of workers under modern capitalism. Twentieth century philosophers such as Hanna Arendt, Michael Foucault and John Rawls continue the philosophical analysis of work as: Central to being human (Arendt); The locus of embodied micro power (Foucault); The arena in which distributive justice is played out (Rawls). Other issues of concern are economic inequality, technological automation and dissatisfaction about the quality or meaningfulness of work in present day jobs (Graeber 2018).

Anthropological perspective

We approach the issue of work from an anthropological perspective bringing in cultural differences, particularly in the 21st C. For example, the 2021 Indian farmers’ strike, which involved over a quarter of a billion people and challenged many of the prevailing norms of western capitalism.

Technology and AI contemporary issues

Most recently, the issue of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has sparked new debates about the future of many forms of intellectual work, including human creative work in music, literature and the visual arts. For some commentators this will eventually render humans as passive consumers of “The Creative Machines”. We will look at various perspectives from this contemporary debate.

Intended audience

Anyone with a general interest in philosophy and the course themes.

Prerequisites

None

Delivery style

Lecture/discussion

Delivery mode

Online via the platform Zoom

Materials

Course notes are provided for each session. All course materials are provided electronically, via Dropbox. Printing services are not available.

Recommended reading

There is no prescribed text. However, the following bibliography contains primary texts used in the course and texts for further study.

Bibliography

• Appiah, Kwame Anthony, 2021. “The Philosophy of Work,” in D. Sobel, P. Vallentyne, and S. Wall (eds.), Oxford Studies in Political Philosophy (Volume 7), Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 1–22.
• Arendt, Hannah, 1958. The Human Condition, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
• Barry, Bruce, Olekalns, Mara, and Rees, Laura, 2019. “An Ethical Analysis of Emotional Labor,” Journal of Business Ethics, 160: 17–34.
• Brynjolfsson, Erik and McAfee, Andrew, 2014. The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies, New York: Norton.
• Budd, John W., 2011. The Thought of Work, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
• Danaher, John, 2019. Automation and Utopia: Human Flourishing in a World Without Work, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
• De Botton, Alain, 2010. The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work, New York: Penguin.
• Gourevitch, Alex, 2018. “The Right to Strike: A Radical View,” American Political Science Review, 112: 905–917.
• Graeber, David, 2018. Bullshit Jobs: A Theory, New York: Simon and Schuster.
• Heath, Joseph, 2018. “On the Very Idea of a Just Wage,” Erasmus Journal for Philosophy and Economics, 11: 1–33.
• Kandiyali, Jan, 2020. “The Importance of Others: Marx on Unalienated Production,” Ethics, 130: 555–587.
• Komlosy, Andrea, 2018. Work: The Last 1,000 Years, London: Verso.
• Nguyen, C. Thi, 2019. “Games and the Art of Agency,” Philosophical Review, 128: 423–462
• O’Connor, Brian, 2018. Idleness: A Philosophical Essay, Princeton: Princeton University Press.
• Rawls, John, 1996. Political Liberalism, New York: Columbia University Press.
• Weber, Max, 1904–05. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, translation of Die protestantische Ethik und der Geist des Kapitalismus, T. Parsons (trans.), New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1930.