Raul Hakli

About

Raul Hakli is a Finnish philosopher whose research sits at the intersection of social robotics, ethics, and philosophy of mind. His work addresses some of the most pressing questions emerging from the rapid advancement of robotic technology, particularly concerning moral responsibility, social interaction, and human attitudes toward machines. Hakli's most influential contribution — "Moral Responsibility of Robots and Hybrid Agents" (2019, 105 citations) — examines whether robots can satisfy the philosophical conditions required for moral agency, drawing a creative analogy between robot responsibility and collective responsibility in human groups. This framework has become a touchstone for researchers navigating the ethics of autonomous systems. Beyond normative philosophy, Hakli has made significant empirical contributions, investigating how elderly users' attitudes toward social robots evolve through direct interaction (67 citations) and developing systematic measurement tools such as the ASOR questionnaire for assessing robot attitudes. His editorial work on *Sociable Robots and the Future of Social Relations* further cemented his role in shaping the Robo-Philosophy research community. Spanning conceptual analysis, empirical psychology, and applied ethics, Hakli's scholarship offers students and researchers an indispensable philosophical foundation for understanding how robots are transforming human social life and moral frameworks.

Research Focus

Key Achievements

Top Papers

1. 1
   Moral Responsibility of Robots and Hybrid Agents

   105 citations · 2019
2. 2
   Attitudinal Change in Elderly Citizens Toward Social Robots: The Role of Personality Traits and Beliefs About Robot Functionality

   67 citations · 2015
3. 3
   Towards a new scale for assessing attitudes towards social robots

   30 citations · 2020
4. 4
   Sociable Robots and the Future of Social Relations

   30 citations · 2014
5. 5
   Sociable Robots and the Future of Social Relations: Proceedings of Robo-Philosophy 2014

   26 citations · 2014
6. 6
   Social Robots and Social Interaction

   9 citations · 2014
7. 7
   Robots, Autonomy, and Responsibility

   8 citations · 2016
8. 8
   Cooperative Human–Robot Planning with Team Reasoning

   6 citations · 2016
9. 9
   A Generic Scale for Assessment of Attitudes Towards Social Robots: The ASOR-5

   5 citations · 2016
10. 10
    Robot Kingdom: On the Difficulty of Finding the Definition of Robots

    3 citations · 2025

Key Collaborators

Contact & Links