“Sociality and Normativity for Robots”: An Introduction

Abstract

This anthology is a response to the challenge that social robotics presents for our traditional conceptions of social interaction, which presuppose such essential capacities as consciousness, intentionality, agency, and normative understanding. The book presents eleven philosophical investigations into our future relations with “social” robots – robots that are specially designed to engage and connect with human beings. It features cutting edge research in philosophy, cognitive science, psychology, and robotics that examines in which sense such robots can be said to be “social” and how human social relations will change when we interact with robots at work and at home. Connecting research in social robotics and empirical studies in Human-Robot Interaction to recent debates in social ontology, social cognition, as well as ethics and philosophy of technology, the authors address all topics that are currently at the forefront of discussion. They offer a taxonomy for the classification of simulated social interactions; investigate whether human social interactions with robots can be genuine; discuss the significance of social relations for the formation of human individuality; clarify whether robots could be said to actually follow social norms and share commitments; whether they could live up to the social meaning of care in caregiving professions; and how we will need to program robots so that they can negotiate the conventions of human social space and collaborate with humans.