Generative AI and The Formation of Practical Wisdom: Ethical Considerations for the Classroom

• In Event: Ethics of AI in Ed: Five Humans and ChatGPT Discuss

Abstract

Author: The presenter is a Visiting Assistant Professor in the department of philosophy at an AAU, research one University in the South East of the United States.

Objective and Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to consider how automation and chronic use of generative AI may impede the formation of practical wisdom among students in higher education. If, as Aristotle argues, practical wisdom is the charioteer of the virtues, this failure to help students develop practical wisdom in and through their coursework may pose serious consequences for their ability to act virtuously in their future careers and personal lives. Furthermore, this paper considers how instructors should ensure that students are independently developing crucial critical thinking and metacognitive skills needed for the development of practical wisdom without delegating the tasks foundational to developing those skills to generative AI.

Methods & Modes of Inquiry: We will conduct a comparative literature review to demonstrate how contemporary Neo-Aristotelian virtue ethics can help instructors choose the best course of action as they address the issue of how much AI should be integrated into the classroom. This will also include an analytical argument that shows the risks and potential dangers of not designing courses and assessments with the development of practical wisdom in mind.

Theoretical Framework and Sources: This paper will rely heavily on Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics and the work of modern, Neo-Aristotelian virtue ethicists, particularly educational theorists such as Darcia Naravez, Nancy Snow, Matthew Stitcher, and Kristian Kristjansson who think about moral development and education specifically.

Arguments for Points of View: The metacognitive skills needed for practical wisdom to develop must be practiced independently by students in a variety of contexts and academic settings over the course of many years. If students are chronically dependent upon AI as a substitute for practicing those metacognitive skills, they will lose crucial opportunities to develop and hone those skills. Thus, educators must intentionally create classroom exercises and assessments that force independent thinking and reflection with a view to developing the metacognitive skills foundational to cultivating practical wisdom.

Scholarly Significance: University instructors are now faced with how to contend with the impact of generative AI in the classroom. There seems to be two popular reactions: 1) encourage students to integrate AI wherever possible, understanding it is something they must familiarize with in order to be competitive in future labor markets 2) banning the use of AI in assessments, wishing to retain the integrity of student learning outcomes. Both reactions stem from good intentions–worries about students' long-term success. This paper shifts the conversation from job-readiness and academic integrity and re-focuses it on something far more integral to the perpetuation of healthy societies–student’s ethical growth and development. Furthermore, while most conversations about ethics and AI center on issues of bias, privacy, etc. we consider AI as an issue of cognitive development and the consequences cognitive erosion can have on moral development.

Authors

• Simon Dutton, University of South Florida

• Lily Abadal, University of South Florida