The Palgrave Handbook on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence (ed. Gouveia)

Steven S. Gouveia (ed.) · 2026 · Palgrave Macmillan (906pp, 56 chapters) background high priority coded

Main argument

Edited handbook, 56 chapters across: metaethics of alignment; environment; privacy/explainability; law and legitimacy (EU AI Act, algocracy); responsibility (escalation, without-moral-agency, virtue-ethical bridging of the responsibility gap, deliberatory practices); virtue/phronesis; care ethics and healthcare AI (a large cluster); deepfakes/manipulation; work (HRM); friendship/companions; moral agency; non-Western perspectives (Basotho governance, Confucian friendship, Japanese relational autonomy, principlism critique).

Why it matters here

The field's newest comprehensive handbook - registered as a container with a chapter map; six chapters flagged for dedicated per-chapter coding because they sit directly on the dissertation: Ch1 metaethics of value alignment, Ch17 responsibility escalation, Ch18 MORAL RESPONSIBILITY WITHOUT MORAL AGENCY, Ch22 virtue ethics bridging the responsibility gap, Ch16 algocracy legitimacy, Ch53 Basotho decolonised AI governance (African philosophy thread).

Reading notes

Container registration; TOC fully mapped (56 chapters). PRIORITY CHAPTERS for follow-up coding: Ch1 'Re-aligning Value Alignment: A Metaethical Perspective' (p36 - the dissertation's exact intersection), Ch16 'Legitimacy in the Age of Algocracy' (p270), Ch17 'Humanity's Moral Burden: As AI Advances, Responsibility Escalates' (p285), Ch18 'Moral Responsibility Without Moral Agency' (p301 - the Sanwoolu/constrained-not-accountable position at chapter length), Ch21 'Can Moral AI Develop (Artificial) Phronesis?' (p342 - Noller's question), Ch22 'Responsible Black Boxes: How Virtue Ethics Can Bridge the Responsibility Gap' (p361), Ch48 'Human-Machine Moral Divergence' (p744), Ch51 'Alignment, AI Risk and Value' (p788), Ch53 'Tapping into Basotho Ethical Governance Resources for a Decolonised AI Governance' (p818 - AFRICAN PHILOSOPHY, direct), Ch55 'In Conversation with Western Principlism' (p850), Ch56 'Relational Autonomy... Japan' (p865). Also case-relevant: Chs 25-30 (care/health cluster for AI Scribe), Ch32 (real doctor or chatbot), Ch39 (AI ethics in HR - AI Interviewer!), Ch13 (EU AI Act).

Gouveia, S. S. (Ed.). (2026). The Palgrave Handbook on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence. Palgrave Macmillan.

Close reading — 1 coded units

#1 · pp. 36 · claim

“[Ch 1: 'Re-aligning Value Alignment: A Metaethical Perspective on AI Ethics' - the handbook opens with the metaethics of value alignment; Ch 18: 'Moral Responsibility Without Moral Agency'; Ch 22: 'Responsible Black Boxes: How Virtue Ethics Can Bridge the Responsibility Gap in AI'; Ch 53: 'Tapping into Basotho Ethical Governance Resources for a Decolonised AI Governance'.]”

TU-LITREV

Synthesis-matrix row

complicates T8-NONWESTERN-CONCEDED

responses emerging: Basotho, Confucian, Japanese chapters

Memos (1)

thesis-link · unit #1

The handbook's own architecture VALIDATES the dissertation's three claimed gaps by dedicating chapters to each: metaethics of alignment (Ch1), responsibility-without-agency and the responsibility gap (Chs 17,18,22), and non-Western frameworks (Chs 53,55,56 - including BASOTHO governance, the most direct African-philosophy-and-AI-governance source yet found; queue Ch53 for full coding and possible citation network contact). Also Ch39 (AI ethics in HRM) is directly the AI Interviewer domain and Chs 25-32 the AI Scribe domain. NEXT ACTIONS: dedicated session coding Chs 1, 17, 18, 22, 53 as separate sources - these five chapters may reshape the lit review's Part II and the African-philosophy subsection.