The Moral Agent: A Critical Rationalist Perspective

Despite the moral underpinnings of Karl Popper’s philosophy, he has not presented a well-established moral theory for critical rationalism (CR). This paper addresses the ontological status of moral agents as part of a research program for developing a moral theory for CR. It argues that moral agents are selves who have achieved the cognitive capacity of personhood through an evolutionary scenario and interaction with the environment. This proposal draws on Popper’s theory of the self and his theory of three worlds, which offer both epistemological and ontological insights into the emergence and evolution of moral agents. The paper also discusses some of the consequences of this proposal for the objectivity and criticizability of moral judgments and the moral agency of artificial intelligence. It concludes by suggesting some directions for future research on the epistemological and ontological problems of ethics in CR.