# NAEL: Non-Anthropocentric Ethical Logic

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.14676 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.14676/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 3 of its 19 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 16 Oct 2025.

## Builds on (most cited first, 3 of 3)

- [Fairness in Machine Learning: Lessons from Political Philosophy](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1712.03586/) (2017)
- [Deep Active Inference](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1709.02341/) (2017)
- [Whence the Expected Free Energy?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2004.08128/) (2020)

## Abstract (arXiv)

We introduce NAEL (Non-Anthropocentric Ethical Logic), a novel ethical framework for artificial agents grounded in active inference and symbolic reasoning. Departing from conventional, human-centred approaches to AI ethics, NAEL formalizes ethical behaviour as an emergent property of intelligent systems minimizing global expected free energy in dynamic, multi-agent environments. We propose a neuro-symbolic architecture to allow agents to evaluate the ethical consequences of their actions in uncertain settings. The proposed system addresses the limitations of existing ethical models by allowing agents to develop context-sensitive, adaptive, and relational ethical behaviour without presupposing anthropomorphic moral intuitions. A case study involving ethical resource distribution illustrates NAEL's dynamic balancing of self-preservation, epistemic learning, and collective welfare.