Agency, responsibility, and the AGI mirror: A metaethical and anthropological inquiry

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Published: Jun 7, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.12681/dia.45798
Keywords:
Platonism modern secular anthropology Metaethics Practical ethics artificial general intelligence (AGI) ethical responsibility Autonomy relationality participation
Konstantina Konstantinou
Ph.D., Research Fellow, Applied Philosophy Research Laboratory, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA), Greece
Maria, K. Chorianopoulou
Associate Professor, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA), Greece
Abstract

This study re-examines the human concept from Platonic ontology through theological anthropology to modern secular thought, focusing on the possible implications of an artificial general intelligence (AGI). Metaethical reflection is prioritized, foregrounding normative and evaluative questions, while practical ethics translates these insights into action, responsibility, and relationality. Complementary anthropological perspectives situate human self-understanding within historical and social contexts, highlighting the contingency of modern definitions. In Platonic philosophy, the human is defined by participation in intelligible realities and orientation toward the Good, with dependence and relationality as core elements. Theological anthropology extends this framework, emphasizing creation and eschatology. Modern secular thought, by contrast, privileges autonomy and functional capacity, reducing human identity to operational performance. What this study contends is that the human being resists reduction to either autonomy or function. To understand what we are, we need to think in terms of how we relate, how we exist, and how we take responsibility -not simply what we can do or decide independently. AGI enters this picture not as a neutral tool but as something that throws these older frameworks into sharp relief. When we confront a system that can mirror agency, we are forced to ask what agency ever really meant- and who bears responsibility when its boundaries blur.

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