Skip to main content
  • Book
  • © 2021

Sex Robots

Social Impact and the Future of Human Relations

  • Brings together a group of top scholars on the issue of the social and cultural implications of sex robots
  • Provides the most updated contents of the relevant moral issues involving sex robots
  • Of interest to a broad audience, including researchers in bioethics and human sexual behavior

Part of the book series: Philosophical Studies in Contemporary Culture (PSCC, volume 28)

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 109.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 139.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 139.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check for access.

Table of contents (12 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-ix
  2. Introduction

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1
  3. Digisexuality, Sexbots, and Other Twenty-First Century Innovations

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 23-23
    2. Nudge Nudge, Wink Wink: Sex Robots as Social Influencers

      • Mark Howard, Robert Sparrow
      Pages 57-74
  4. Back Matter

    Pages 197-204

About this book

This book provides cross-cultural ethical exploration of sex robots and their social impact. What are the implications of sex robots and related technological innovations for society and culture? How should we evaluate the significance of sexual relations with robots that look like women, men or children? Critics argue that sex robots present a clear risk to real persons and a social degradation that will increase sexual violence, objectify women, encourage pedophilia, reinforce negative body images, increase forms of sexual dysfunction, and pass on sexually transmitted disease. Proponents judge robotic sexual companionship as just another step in the exploration of human desire. They see sex robots, and similar technology, such as virtual reality pornography, as providing autonomy affirming companionship for the lonely and a relatively harmless outlet for sexual fantasies that avoids the use of human prostitutes and thus reduces sexual victimization. Some appreciate sex robots as a social evil, others as a positive good, and still others as a harmless pastime. How we come to terms with such conceptual and moral concerns will have significant implications for society and the future of human relations. This book is of great interest to researchers in bioethics, human sexual behavior, AI ethics, and philosophy of sex.
 

Reviews

“This volume special is that it has contributors from different cultural and philosophical backgrounds. … I hope that readers can see that this anthology is very rich both in the sense of containing comparative perspectives … and in the sense that there are actually dialogues among its contributors. These interesting philosophical exercises can surely help readers to reflect not only on ethical implications of the use of sex robots, but also on issues in applied ethics in general.” (Tongdong Bai, Dao, Vol. 22 (1), 2023)

Editors and Affiliations

  • Department of Public Policy, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

    Ruiping Fan

  • Department of Philosophy, School of Arts & Humanities, St. Edward’s University, Austin, USA

    Mark J. Cherry

About the editors

Ruiping FAN received his medical degree from Baotou College of Medicine in Inner Mongolia and PhD in philosophy from Rice University in Houston. He is currently a professor of philosophy at the City University of Hong Kong. He also serves as Co-Editor of the International Journal of Chinese & Comparative Philosophy of Medicine (Hong Kong), Associate Editor of The Journal of Medicine & Philosophy (USA) and Chinese Medical Ethics (mainland China). His research focuses on bioethics as well as Confucianism and comparative philosophy. He has published over 170 journal articles and book chapters (over 90 in English and 80 in Chinese). Among his two monographs and ten edited/co-edited volumes is Reconstructionist Confucianism: Rethinking Morality after the West via Springer in 2010.

Mark J. Cherry is the Dr. Patricia A. Hayes Professor in Applied Ethics and Professor of Philosophy at St. Edward’s University, Austin, Texas. He earned his undergraduate degree in philosophy from the University of Houston and his doctorate degree in philosophy from Rice University in Houston, Texas. His research compasses ethics and bioethics, together with social and political philosophy. He is author of Kidney for Sale by Owner: Human Organs, Transplantation, and the Market (Georgetown University Press, 2005; 2015) and Sex, Family, and the Culture Wars (Routledge, 2016). He is Editor of The Journal of Medicine and Philosophy (Oxford University Press), Senior Editor of Christian Bioethics (Oxford University Press), and Editor-in-Chief of HealthCare Ethics Committee Forum (Springer); he is Co-editor of the book series The Annals of Bioethics (Routledge) and Editor of the book series Philosophical Studies in Contemporary Culture (Springer) 


Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Sex Robots

  • Book Subtitle: Social Impact and the Future of Human Relations

  • Editors: Ruiping Fan, Mark J. Cherry

  • Series Title: Philosophical Studies in Contemporary Culture

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-82280-4

  • Publisher: Springer Cham

  • eBook Packages: Social Sciences, Social Sciences (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-82279-8Published: 04 November 2021

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-82282-8Published: 05 November 2022

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-82280-4Published: 03 November 2021

  • Series ISSN: 0928-9518

  • Series E-ISSN: 2215-1753

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: IX, 204

  • Number of Illustrations: 1 b/w illustrations

  • Topics: Bioethics, Ethics, Artificial Intelligence

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 109.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 139.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 139.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access