Large scale data on public preferences is now available quickly and relatively cheaply. How should this data be used to inform policy? ‘Collective Reflective Equilibrium in Practice’ is an approach that enables preference data to be taken into account, while not succumbing to moral relativism or mob rule. Instead, this approach provides a principled way of using some public preferences as an input for policy, while justifiably disregarding others. Public attitudes functions as an input into a deliberative process that looks for coherence between attitudes, behaviours and competing ethical principles. In cases of reasonable moral disagreement, data on public attitudes should play a much greater role in shaping policies than in areas where ethical theories reach a consensus. I will apply this approach to a recent ‘Moral Machine’ study, which generated preference data from millions of people on the programming of Automated Vehicles in a variety of road-accident dilemmas.

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https://unibas.zoom.us/j/63373360299