Relational Consciousness and the Role of Artificial Intelligence (Part IV): The Transformation of Human Thought and the Structure of Judgmen
PhilPapers (PhilPapers Foundation) February 17, 2026 Jun, Daedo
Human thought in AI-mediated environments is not disappearing but undergoing a structural transformation from generative thinking to reflective thinking. AI pre-structures the space of possible choices and preempts the generative conditions of judgment, reducing direct human intervention. However, this does not mean the loss of autonomy. Instead, human thought shifts from generating judgments to examining the conditions under which judgments are formed. The paper formalizes this through the concept of reflective autonomy and distinguishes between generative responsibility and approval responsibility, reconstructing the ethical role humans play in hybrid cognitive environments. It proposes a theoretical foundation for reinterpreting the post-AI human condition at ontological and ethical levels.