Probing Ethical Framework Representations in Large Language Models: Structure, Entanglement, and Methodological Challenges
arXiv:2603.23659v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: When large language models make ethical judgments, do their internal representations distinguish between normative frameworks, or collapse ethics into a single acceptability dimension? We probe hidden representations across five ethical frameworks (deontology, utilitarianism, virtue, justice, commonsense) in six LLMs spanning 4B–72B parameters. Our analysis reveals differentiated ethical subspaces with asymmetric transfer patterns — e.g., deontology probes partially generalize to virtue scenarios while commonsense probes fail catastrophically on justice. Disagreement between deontological and utilitarian […]