Abstract
Does the robot actually look (and not just see), does the robot actually feel (and not just touch)? To experts in robotics, the conflict between “touch” and “feel” may first appear as a concern of communication, situated at a linguistic level only. However, the core of the question is rather a matter of epistemology of the discourse that invokes their own relation to natural language and rationality. To support this statement, we explore the rhetorical practices of roboticists. From a general point of view, their discourses embody two epistemological tendencies (postmodernism and reductionism) that are representative of every disciplinary field. We address the problem of these two epistemological pitfalls which need to be overcome as experts in robotics intend to guide citizens in their judgements about robots.
This work is supported by the European Research Council Advanced Grant 340050 Actanthrope.
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- 1.
This interview is extracted from a data basis gathering many interviews of eminent researchers in robotics. Such data basis deserves to be deeply explored to better understand how roboticists speak about their discipline. This is part of our current work.
- 2.
The concept of universal audience is described by Perelman within the framework of argument construction and evaluation and consists in all adult rational human beings [15].
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Pieters, C., Danblon, E., Laumond, JP. (2019). Beyond the Conflict Between “Touch” and “Feel” in Robotics. In: Laumond, JP., Danblon, E., Pieters, C. (eds) Wording Robotics. Springer Tracts in Advanced Robotics, vol 130. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-17974-8_7
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