Johanna Seibt
Aarhus University, Philosophy and History of Ideas, Faculty Member
- My research interests lie in the area of analytical ontology (process ontology, method of ontology), contemporary met... moreMy research interests lie in the area of analytical ontology (process ontology, method of ontology), contemporary metaphysics and the history of metaphysics (Wilfrid Sellars, Carnap, Leibniz, Hegel, Whitehead), and more recently, in conflict research (value conflicts), intercultural value studies, and philosophy of social robotics. I am currently holding a chair in "Transdisciplinary Process Studies for Integrated Social Robotics" and coordinate a research project entitled "What Social Robots Can and Should Do--Towards Integrative Social Robotics" supported by the Carlsberg Foundation. I am the coordinator of the Research Unit for Robophilosophy. In 2014 I defined the field of "robophilosophy" as "philosophy of, for, and by social robotics." The Research Unit for Robophilosophy organizes the Robophilosophy Conference Series as well as research events in the research network for Transdisciplinary Studies in Social Robotics (TRANSOR) . Here is a video on introducing the motivations for robophilosophy: https://www.carlsbergfondet.dk/en/Nyheder/Nyt%20fra%20fondet/Stay%20Curious_Videoserie#addsearch=johannedit
The Handbook presents over 130 compact original contributions to contemporary research on part-whole relations. The aim of the collection is to show that mereology is much more than the study of axiomatized reasoning systems. The... more
The Handbook presents over 130 compact original contributions to contemporary research on part-whole relations. The aim of the collection is to show that mereology is much more than the study of axiomatized reasoning systems. The relationship between part and whole is one of the most basic schemata of cognitive organization that operates not only at the level of language processing and propositional thought, but also at the level of sensory input processing. In all research disciplines, part-whole relations organize all three core components of research: data domains, methods, and theories. In short, part-whole relations play a fundamental role in how we perceive and interact with nature, how we speak and think about the world and ourselves, as societies and as individuals. For this reason the study of part-whole relations, both within and across domains, begins long before the meta-mathematically motivated inquiries of logicians at the beginning of the 20th century, and goes far beyond it. To convey for the first time structured access to this fecund and diversified research landscape is the aim of this collection.
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The robotics industry is growing rapidly, and to a large extent the development of this market sector is due to the area of social robotics—the production of robots that are designed to enter the space of human social interaction, both... more
The robotics industry is growing rapidly, and to a large extent the development of this market sector is due to the area of social robotics—the production of robots that are designed to enter the space of human social interaction, both physically and semantically. Since social robots present a new type of social agent, they have been aptly classified as a disruptive technology, i.e. the sort of technology which affects the core of our current social practices and might lead to profound cultural and social change.
Due to its disruptive and innovative potential, social robotics raises not only questions about utility, ethics, and legal aspects, but calls for “robo-philosophy”—the comprehensive philosophical reflection from the perspectives of all philosophical disciplines. This book presents the proceedings of the first conference in this new area, “Robo-Philosophy 2014 – Sociable Robots and the Future of Social Relations, held in Aarhus, Denmark, in August 2014. The short papers and abstracts collected here address questions of social robotics from the perspectives of philosophy of mind, social ontology, ethics, meta-ethics, political philosophy, aesthetics, intercultural philosophy, and metaphilosophy.
Social robotics is still in its early stages, but it is precisely now that we need to reflect its possible cultural repercussions. This book is accessible to a wide readership and will be of interest to everyone involved in the development and use of social robotics applications, from social roboticists to policy makers.
Due to its disruptive and innovative potential, social robotics raises not only questions about utility, ethics, and legal aspects, but calls for “robo-philosophy”—the comprehensive philosophical reflection from the perspectives of all philosophical disciplines. This book presents the proceedings of the first conference in this new area, “Robo-Philosophy 2014 – Sociable Robots and the Future of Social Relations, held in Aarhus, Denmark, in August 2014. The short papers and abstracts collected here address questions of social robotics from the perspectives of philosophy of mind, social ontology, ethics, meta-ethics, political philosophy, aesthetics, intercultural philosophy, and metaphilosophy.
Social robotics is still in its early stages, but it is precisely now that we need to reflect its possible cultural repercussions. This book is accessible to a wide readership and will be of interest to everyone involved in the development and use of social robotics applications, from social roboticists to policy makers.
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Intercultural dialogue is often invoked in vague reference to a method that can build cross-cultural understanding and facilitate global policy-making. The 25 chapters of this book, written by international specialists, clarify the... more
Intercultural dialogue is often invoked in vague reference to a method that
can build cross-cultural understanding and facilitate global policy-making.
The 25 chapters of this book, written by international specialists, clarify the theoretical foundations of intercultural dialogue and
demonstrate the practical significance of intercultural value inquiry, combining
the perspectives of philosophy, conflict research, religious studies, and
education.
Contributors:
María Inés Arrizabalaga; Reinhold Bernhardt; Fred Dallmayr; Daniel
Druckman; Douglas Fry; Jesper Garsdal; Silja Graupe; Mike Hulme; Ramin
Jahanbegloo; Elsebet Jegstrup; Hans Köchler; Karyn Lai; Yoram Lubling;
Christopher Mitchell; Timothy Reagan; Raffaele Rodogno; Marc Ross;
Dorothee Schlenke; Daryush Shayegan; Augustine Shutte; Geneviève
Souillac; Zhihe Wang; Tingyang Zhao
can build cross-cultural understanding and facilitate global policy-making.
The 25 chapters of this book, written by international specialists, clarify the theoretical foundations of intercultural dialogue and
demonstrate the practical significance of intercultural value inquiry, combining
the perspectives of philosophy, conflict research, religious studies, and
education.
Contributors:
María Inés Arrizabalaga; Reinhold Bernhardt; Fred Dallmayr; Daniel
Druckman; Douglas Fry; Jesper Garsdal; Silja Graupe; Mike Hulme; Ramin
Jahanbegloo; Elsebet Jegstrup; Hans Köchler; Karyn Lai; Yoram Lubling;
Christopher Mitchell; Timothy Reagan; Raffaele Rodogno; Marc Ross;
Dorothee Schlenke; Daryush Shayegan; Augustine Shutte; Geneviève
Souillac; Zhihe Wang; Tingyang Zhao
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Ontology was once understood to be the philosophical inquiry into the structure of reality: the analysis and categorization of ‘what there is’. Recently, however, a field called ‘ontology’ has become part of the rapidly growing research... more
Ontology was once understood to be the philosophical inquiry into the structure of reality: the analysis and categorization of ‘what there is’. Recently, however, a field called ‘ontology’ has become part of the rapidly growing research industry in information technology. The two fields have more in common than just their name.
Theory and Applications of Ontology is a two-volume anthology that aims to further an informed discussion about the relationship between ontology in philosophy and ontology in information technology. It fills an important lacuna in cutting-edge research on ontology in both fields, supplying stage-setting overview articles on history and method, presenting directions of current research in either field, and highlighting areas of productive interdisciplinary contact.
Theory and Applications of Ontology: Computer Applications presents ontology in ways that philosophers are not likely to find elsewhere. The volume offers an overview of current research in ontology, distinguishing basic conceptual issues, domain applications, general frameworks, and mathematical formalisms. It introduces the reader to current research on frameworks and applications in information technology in ways that are sure to invite reflection and constructive responses from ontologists in philosophy.
Theory and Applications of Ontology is a two-volume anthology that aims to further an informed discussion about the relationship between ontology in philosophy and ontology in information technology. It fills an important lacuna in cutting-edge research on ontology in both fields, supplying stage-setting overview articles on history and method, presenting directions of current research in either field, and highlighting areas of productive interdisciplinary contact.
Theory and Applications of Ontology: Computer Applications presents ontology in ways that philosophers are not likely to find elsewhere. The volume offers an overview of current research in ontology, distinguishing basic conceptual issues, domain applications, general frameworks, and mathematical formalisms. It introduces the reader to current research on frameworks and applications in information technology in ways that are sure to invite reflection and constructive responses from ontologists in philosophy.
Processes constitute the world of human experience--from nature to cognition to social reality. Yet our philosophical and scientific theories of nature and experience have traditionally prioritized concepts for static objects and... more
Processes constitute the world of human experience--from nature to cognition to social reality. Yet our philosophical and scientific theories of nature and experience have traditionally prioritized concepts for static objects and structures. The essays collected here call for a review of the role of dynamic categories in the language of theories. They present old and new descriptive tools for the modeling of dynamic domains, and argue for the merits of precess-based explanations in ontology, cognitive science, semiotics, linguistics, philosophy of mind, robotics, theoretical biology, music theory, and philosophy of chemistry and physics. The collection is of interest to professional researchers in any of these fields; it establishes--for the very first time--cross-disciplinary contact among recent process-based research movements and might witness a conceptual paradigm shift in the making.
The book (in German) offers a compact and accessible introduction to the philosophy of Wilfrid Sellars, with special attention to links with contemporary research in the philosophy of mind. Unlike other introductions to Sellars'... more
The book (in German) offers a compact and accessible introduction to the philosophy of Wilfrid Sellars, with special attention to links with contemporary research in the philosophy of mind. Unlike other introductions to Sellars' thought, the book works out in greater detail the process-ontological roots of Sellars' naturalism.
Der Bekanntheitsgrad von Sellars’ ›anti-Cartesischer‹, naturalistischer Philosophie steht in einem erstaunlichen Missverhältnis zu ihrer Bedeutsamkeit. Sellars kritisierte die klassische These, dass unser Wissen von der Welt auf kausal ›gegebenen‹ Vorstellungsinhalten beruhen könnte. Dieser »Mythos des Gegebenen«, ja der Begriff der mentalen Repräsentation selbst, stellt eine unzulässige Vereinfachung der Beziehung zwischen Ursachen und Inhalten dar. Die Inhaltlichkeit und Weltbezogenheit (Intentionalität) unseres Denkens leitet sich nach Sellars vielmehr aus der Inhaltlichkeit und Weltbezogenheit unseres Sprechens ab, und diese ist eine Sache der Funktion – der Funktion von phonetischen Objekten innerhalb der komplexen, selbst-modifizierenden Praxis einer Sprachgemeinschaft, die im Zuge wissenschaftlicher Forschung die kausale Interaktion mit ihrer Umwelt stets zu verbessern sucht.
Das Anliegen des Buches ist es, eine einführende Orientierung zu Sellars’ Naturalismus zu geben. Dabei werden die systematischen Grundlinien einfach und textnah nachgezeichnet und auch wenig bekannte Elemente des Ansatzes vorgestellt, wie etwa Sellars’ nominalistische Prädikationstheorie und die prozess-ontologische Konzeption der Sinneseindrücke. Das Buch ist als Einstieg zu Sellars zu lesen, aber auch als Hintergrundinformation zur aktuellen Debatte um »folk psychology« bzw. »theory theory of mind«, die ihre Sellarsschen Ursprünge weithin vergessen zu haben scheint.
Der Bekanntheitsgrad von Sellars’ ›anti-Cartesischer‹, naturalistischer Philosophie steht in einem erstaunlichen Missverhältnis zu ihrer Bedeutsamkeit. Sellars kritisierte die klassische These, dass unser Wissen von der Welt auf kausal ›gegebenen‹ Vorstellungsinhalten beruhen könnte. Dieser »Mythos des Gegebenen«, ja der Begriff der mentalen Repräsentation selbst, stellt eine unzulässige Vereinfachung der Beziehung zwischen Ursachen und Inhalten dar. Die Inhaltlichkeit und Weltbezogenheit (Intentionalität) unseres Denkens leitet sich nach Sellars vielmehr aus der Inhaltlichkeit und Weltbezogenheit unseres Sprechens ab, und diese ist eine Sache der Funktion – der Funktion von phonetischen Objekten innerhalb der komplexen, selbst-modifizierenden Praxis einer Sprachgemeinschaft, die im Zuge wissenschaftlicher Forschung die kausale Interaktion mit ihrer Umwelt stets zu verbessern sucht.
Das Anliegen des Buches ist es, eine einführende Orientierung zu Sellars’ Naturalismus zu geben. Dabei werden die systematischen Grundlinien einfach und textnah nachgezeichnet und auch wenig bekannte Elemente des Ansatzes vorgestellt, wie etwa Sellars’ nominalistische Prädikationstheorie und die prozess-ontologische Konzeption der Sinneseindrücke. Das Buch ist als Einstieg zu Sellars zu lesen, aber auch als Hintergrundinformation zur aktuellen Debatte um »folk psychology« bzw. »theory theory of mind«, die ihre Sellarsschen Ursprünge weithin vergessen zu haben scheint.
Research Interests: Sociology, International Relations, Ontology, Epistemology, Intercultural Communication, and 12 moreTranslation Studies, Values, Conflict, Cognition, Political Science, Affect/Emotion, Intercultural Competence, Intercultural dialogue, Intercultural Philosophy, Citizenship, Intercultural Relations, and De Gruyter
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The depiction model presents a major advance in our theoretical conceptualization of how humans experience and understand social robots. But the scope of the model is, I suggest, more limited: It pertains to one possible phase in a more... more
The depiction model presents a major advance in our theoretical conceptualization of how humans experience and understand social robots. But the scope of the model is, I suggest, more limited: It pertains to one possible phase in a more comprehensive cognitive-practical dynamics of sense-making (“sociomorphing”) as conceptualized in the OASIS framework. According to the OASIS framework, some basic social actions can be realized by robots, while others may be depicted in the way described by the model.
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A fundamental fact about human minds is that they are never truly alone: all minds are steeped in situated interaction. That social interaction matters is recognized by any experimentalist who seeks to exclude its influence by studying... more
A fundamental fact about human minds is that they are never truly alone: all minds are steeped in situated interaction. That social interaction matters is recognized by any experimentalist who seeks to exclude its influence by studying individuals in isolation. On this view, interaction complicates cognition. Here, we explore the more radical stance that interaction co‐constitutes cognition: that we benefit from looking beyond single minds toward cognition as a process involving interacting minds. All around the cognitive sciences, there are approaches that put interaction center stage. Their diverse and pluralistic origins may obscure the fact that collectively, they harbor insights and methods that can respecify foundational assumptions and fuel novel interdisciplinary work. What might the cognitive sciences gain from stronger interactional foundations? This represents, we believe, one of the key questions for the future. Writing as a transdisciplinary collective assembled from ac...
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The study of human-robot interaction (HRI) currently lacks (i) clear understanding of the envisaged scope and format of the pluridisciplinary approach required by the domain, (ii) established set of methods and standards, and (iii) a... more
The study of human-robot interaction (HRI) currently lacks (i) clear understanding of the envisaged scope and format of the pluridisciplinary approach required by the domain, (ii) established set of methods and standards, and (iii) a joint terminological framework, or at least a set of analytical concepts and associated tests. This chapter aims to contribute to these three tasks. We begin with the observation that there is a need to define both the interdisciplinary scope of HRI research and its pluridisciplinary format, two tasks that are at the center of the new procedural paradigm of “Integrative Social Robotics”. These methodological reflections are further illustrated with a newly developed questionnaire, the AMPH. The AMPH contains a higher proportion of items tapping anthropomorphism towards artefacts than extant questionnaires. The analysis of AMPH (N = 339) pointed to a two-factor solution: anthropomorphism towards artefacts and anthropomorphism towards natural objects. These findings were further explored through triangulation with qualitative data. In the last section of the paper we discuss how the AMPH can be used to trace the distinction between humanizing and socializing (anthropomorphing and sociomorphing), and how qualitative and quantitative methods should be used in unison in HRI research to achieve more fine-grained analyses of relevant experiences. We argue, based on philosophical concept analysis and phenomenology, that the notion of anthropomorphization is far from clear and we must distinguish tendencies to humanize from tendencies to socialize, which comes in various subvarieties. In conclusion we consider whether our results suggest that HRI should aim for the high degree of pluridisciplinary integration associated with an “interdiscipline” or even a “transdiscipline.”
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In this research note, we offer a comment on the “A Primer for Conducting Experiments in Human-robot Interaction,” by G. Hoffman and X. Zhao, suggesting that due to the complexity of human social reality quantitative methods should be... more
In this research note, we offer a comment on the “A Primer for Conducting Experiments in Human-robot Interaction,” by G. Hoffman and X. Zhao, suggesting that due to the complexity of human social reality quantitative methods should be integrated into a mixed method approach.
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Background: The surge in the development of social robots gives rise to an increased need for systematic methods of assessing attitudes towards robots. Aim: This study presents the development of a questionnaire for assessing attitudinal... more
Background: The surge in the development of social robots gives rise to an increased need for systematic methods of assessing attitudes towards robots. Aim: This study presents the development of a questionnaire for assessing attitudinal stance towards social robots: the ASOR. Methods: The 37-item ASOR questionnaire was developed by a task-force with members from different disciplines. It was founded on theoretical considerations of how social robots could influence five different aspects of relatedness. Results: Three hundred thirty-nine people responded to the survey. Factor analysis of the ASOR yielded a three-factor solution consisting of a total of 25 items: “ascription of mental capacities”, “ascription of socio-practical capacities”, and “ascription of socio-moral status”. This data was further triangulated with data from interviews (n = 10). Conclusion: the ASOR allows for assessment of three distinct facets of ascription of capacities to social robots and offers a new type ...
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Research Interests: Psychology and Cognition
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Research Interests: Ontology and Constitution
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Social robotics does not create tools but social ‘others’ that act in the physical and symbolic space of human social interactions. In order to guide the profound disruptive potential of this technology, social robotics must be... more
Social robotics does not create tools but social ‘others’ that act in the physical and symbolic space of human social interactions. In order to guide the profound disruptive potential of this technology, social robotics must be repositioned—we must reconceive it as an emerging interdisciplinary area where expertise on social reality, as physical, practical, and symbolic space, is constitutively included. I present here the guiding principles for such a repositioning, “Integrative Social Robotics,” and argue that the path to culturally sustainable (value-preserving) or positive (value-enhancing) applications of social robotics goes via a redirection of the humanities and social sciences. Rather than creating new educations by disemboweling, the humanities and social sciences, students need to acquire full disciplinary competence in these disciplines, as well as the new skill to direct these qualifications toward membership in multidisciplinary developer teams.
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Parfit’s Branch Line argument is intended to show that the relation of survival is possibly a one-many relation and thus different from numerical identity. I offer a detailed reconstruction of Parfit’s notions of survival and personal... more
Parfit’s Branch Line argument is intended to show that the relation of survival is possibly a one-many relation and thus different from numerical identity. I offer a detailed reconstruction of Parfit’s notions of survival and personal identity, and show the argument cannot be coherently formulated within Parfit’s own setting. More specifically, I argue that Parfit’s own specifications imply that the “R-relation”, i.e., the relation claimed to capture of “what matters in survival,” turns out to hold not only along but also across the branches representing the development of a reduplicated person. This curious fact of ‘interbranch survival,’ as I call it, has gone unnoticed so far. The fact that the R-relation also holds across branches creates a trilemma for Parfit’s approach. Either the envisaged notion of personal identity is circular, or the R-relation fails as a reconstruction of the common sense notion of survival, or talk about persons ‘branching’ (being reduplicated etc.) remains semantically empty. In the paper’s last section I suggest that my criticism does not detract from the larger systematic significance of Parfit’s argument. The argument is simply terminologically miscalibrated. Even though Parfit’s branch line argument fails to establish the conceptual separability of survival and identity, it can be used to show the separability of sameness and numerical identity, which should have similar implications for meta-ethics as the original argument.
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Die Wirklichkeitsbeschreibungen der Philosophie des 20. Jahrhunderts bis heute enthalten Bezugnahmen auf dynamische Aspekte in allerlei begrifflichen Variationen: auf ›duree‹, ›actual occasions‹, Werden, Ereignisse, Prozesse, Aktivitaten,... more
Die Wirklichkeitsbeschreibungen der Philosophie des 20. Jahrhunderts bis heute enthalten Bezugnahmen auf dynamische Aspekte in allerlei begrifflichen Variationen: auf ›duree‹, ›actual occasions‹, Werden, Ereignisse, Prozesse, Aktivitaten, ›flows‹, ›shifts‹, ›occurrences‹, ›Aktualisierungen von Potentialitaten‹, Realisierungen von ›powers‹, ›dynamics‹, und so fort. Aber welcher dieser Ansatze, deren Selbstbezeichnungen weit auseinanderliegen, lasst sich dem methodologischen Modell der analytischen Ontologie zuordnen? Und welche dieser Bezugnahmen ist theoretisch hinreichend zentral oder grundlegend, um von einer ›Prozessontologie‹ zu sprechen? Da ›analytische Prozessontologie‹ noch keine gangige Klassifikation ist, mussen zunachst die Kriterien vorgestellt werden, die eine Einordnung leiten konnen.
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Recently philosophers of biology have presented arguments calling for a reconceptualization of the biological domain that is focused on processes, or even exclusively formulated in terms of processes (Dupre 2012; Falkner and Falkner 2013;... more
Recently philosophers of biology have presented arguments calling for a reconceptualization of the biological domain that is focused on processes, or even exclusively formulated in terms of processes (Dupre 2012; Falkner and Falkner 2013; Koutroufinis 2014b). Such arguments for a 'process turn' in biology could be strengthened if one could show that recasting biological phenomena in the classificatory terms of a sufficiently precisely formulated process-ontological framework can increase explanatory depth in biology and serve as a heuristic for empirical research. But is there an ontological theory out there that those interested in the process turn in biology could turn to? From Aristotle onwards, ontology has been under the spell of what I have called the 'myth of substance' -a set of unreflected presuppositions for ontological theory construction that prescribe a focus on static entities, mainly a dualism of particulars and universals, as the most 'natural'...
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The impacts of various mediation platforms on negotiation outcomes and perceptions are compared in this article. The mediator platforms contrasted were a (teleoperated) Telenoid robot, a human, and a computer screen. All of these... more
The impacts of various mediation platforms on negotiation outcomes and perceptions are compared in this article. The mediator platforms contrasted were a (teleoperated) Telenoid robot, a human, and a computer screen. All of these platforms used the same script for process diagnosis, analysis, and advice on how to resolve an impasse in a simulated high-tech company de-merger negotiation. A fourth experimental condition consisted of a no-mediation control. More agreements and more integrative agreements were attained by the robotic platform than by the other types of mediator platforms and the control. Mediation via the Telenoid robot also produced more non-structured agreements, which consisted of decisions made outside of the scenario options. Negotiators in this condition had more positive perceptions of the mediation experience, were more satisfied with the outcome, and thought that the mediator’s advice was more useful. Indirect analyses showed that the outcomes mediated the effe...
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Gender ascription to robots may lead to willingly or inadvertently repeating gender stereotypes. To reduce this risk, it is important to delineate how gender is spontaneously assigned to robots. The present study explores spontaneous... more
Gender ascription to robots may lead to willingly or inadvertently repeating gender stereotypes. To reduce this risk, it is important to delineate how gender is spontaneously assigned to robots. The present study explores spontaneous ascription of gender to a social robot with minimal visual gender cues. A total of N=63 participants partook and were engaged in interaction with the robot for 45–50 minutes. The majority (n=36) ascribed gender to the robot, mainly based on voice. The remaining participants still assigned mental capacities to the robot. The implications of the results are discussed.
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Intercultural dialogue is often invoked in vague reference to a method that can build cross-cultural understanding and facilitate global policy-making. This book clarifies the theoretical foundations of intercultural dialogue and... more
Intercultural dialogue is often invoked in vague reference to a method that can build cross-cultural understanding and facilitate global policy-making. This book clarifies the theoretical foundations of intercultural dialogue and demonstrates the practical significance of intercultural value inquiry, combining the perspectives of philosophy, conflict research, religious studies, and education.
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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... more
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 ...
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Much of the ethical debate about social robotics applications hinges on the ontological classification of our interactions with robots, but a detailed ontological account of simulated social interaction is still missing. In this paper I... more
Much of the ethical debate about social robotics applications hinges on the ontological classification of our interactions with robots, but a detailed ontological account of simulated social interaction is still missing. In this paper I briefly explain why characterizations of human-robot interactions are best undertaken in a neutral, ‘technical’ idiom. Then I define five modes of simulation (functionally replicating, imitating, mimicking, displaying, and approximating) in terms of relations between processes. I sketch how these notions can be used to describe more precisely what a certain robot ‘can do.’ In conclusion I sketch a general strategy for developing a fine-grained taxonomy of social interactions.
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Research Interests: Sociology and De Gruyter
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" Integrative Social Robotics " (ISR) is a new approach or general method for generating social robotics applications that are culturally sustainable (Seibt 2016). The paper briefly recapitulates the primary motivation... more
" Integrative Social Robotics " (ISR) is a new approach or general method for generating social robotics applications that are culturally sustainable (Seibt 2016). The paper briefly recapitulates the primary motivation for ISR. Currently social robotics is caught in a compounded version of the Collingridge dilemma—a triple gridlock of description, evaluation, and regulation tasks. In a second step we describe how ISR can overcome this gridlock, presenting five principles that should guide the research, design, and development (RDD) process for applications in social robotics. Characteristic of ISR is to intertwine a mixed method approach (i.e., conducting experimental, quantitative, qualitative, and phenomenological research for the same envisaged application) with conceptual and axiological analysis in philosophy; moreover, ISR is value-driven and abides by the " non-replacement principle " : social robots may only do what humans should but cannot do. In conclusion we suggest, with reference to a classification of different formats of pluridisciplinary research by Nersessian and Newstetter (2013), that ISR may establish social robotics as a new transdiscipline.
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The aim of this paper is to sketch the basic motivations for " Integrative Social Robotics " (ISR), as a new paradigm for how to approach research, design, and development of social robotics applications that are... more
The aim of this paper is to sketch the basic motivations for " Integrative Social Robotics " (ISR), as a new paradigm for how to approach research, design, and development of social robotics applications that are culturally sustainable. I argue that social robotics saddles us with normative-regulatory and descriptive questions that currently are kept too far apart. Currently HRI research investigates what social robots can do and robo-ethicists deliberate afterwards what robots should do. However, given the rapid pace of the robotics industry, descriptive and regulatory questions must be treated in combination. On the ISR approach research in social robotics turns on what social robots can and should do-design and development are from the very beginning informed by value-theoretic and cultural research. ISR thus is a form of research organization that integrates robotics with empirical, conceptual, and value-theoretic research in the Humanities, the Social Sciences, and the Human Sciences. The resulting paradigm is user-driven design writ large: research, design, and development of social robotics applications are guided—with multiple feedback—by the reflected normative preferences of a cultural community.
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Since robots cannot work, in the full sense of the term, humans cannot work together with robots. The so-called 'cooperation' with robots can take many forms for which we need a new description language. OASIS, the... more
Since robots cannot work, in the full sense of the term, humans cannot work together with robots. The so-called 'cooperation' with robots can take many forms for which we need a new description language. OASIS, the Ontology of Asymmetric Social Interactions, was developed with the goal of providing a simple yet sufficiently precise and discriminative classificatory framework for interactions where one interaction partner fails to possess the capacities required for human normative action and merely simulates such capacities. The framework shall facilitate the interdisciplinary integration of human-robot interaction research and more generally the development of an interdisciplinary theory of sociality. In OASIS five modes of simulations are distinguished and each human action is associated with a matrix listing the possible combinations of modes of simulations of the parts of the action. OASIS uses familiar distinctions in forms of collective intentionality to classify different kinds of coordinated and collaborative social interactions between humans and robots. Unlike extant work in social ontology, OASIS represents any one social interactions as a complex of interactions as viewed from (at least) three perspectives (first, second, and third person). The relationships between these component interactions can be used to formulate, with great precision, specific empirical hypotheses —for example, what is projected as human-robot teamwork in third person perspective, may be experienced in first person perspective as " working alongside " or even " working next to. "
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Social robotics and HRI are in need of a unified and differentiated theoretical framework where, relative to interaction context, robotic properties can be related to types of human experiences and interactive dispositions. The aim of... more
Social robotics and HRI are in need of a unified and differentiated theoretical framework where, relative to interaction context, robotic properties can be related to types of human experiences and interactive dispositions. The aim of this paper is to contribute to this task by providing new descriptive tools. In social robotics and HRI it is commonly assumed that social interactions with robots are due to ‘anthropomorphizing’. We challenge this assumption and argue, on conceptual and empirical grounds, that social interactions with robots are not always the result of anthropomorphizing, i.e., the projection of imaginary or fictional human social capacities, but of sociomorphing, i.e., the perception of actual non-human social capacities. Sociomorphing can take many forms which phenomenally manifest themselves in various types of experienced sociality. We very briefly sketch core elements of the descriptive framework OASIS (the Ontology of Asymmetric Social Interactions) in order to...
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To appear in: Braidotti, R. / Hlavajova, M. (2016) Posthuman Glossary. "Robophilosophy" is a new field of philosophical research that has the Robophilosophy Conference Series (www.robophilosophy.org) as its main discussion forum. In... more
To appear in: Braidotti, R. / Hlavajova, M. (2016) Posthuman Glossary.
"Robophilosophy" is a new field of philosophical research that has the Robophilosophy Conference Series (www.robophilosophy.org) as its main discussion forum. In this short lexicon entry I define the meaning of the term.
"Robophilosophy" is a new field of philosophical research that has the Robophilosophy Conference Series (www.robophilosophy.org) as its main discussion forum. In this short lexicon entry I define the meaning of the term.
Research Interests:
The present volume is the first comprehensive reference work for research on part-whole relations. The Handbook of Mereology offers a wide scope, inclusive presentation of contemporary research on part-whole relations that draws out... more
The present volume is the first comprehensive reference work for research on part-whole relations. The Handbook of Mereology offers a wide scope, inclusive presentation of contemporary research on part-whole relations that draws out systematic, historical, and interdisciplinary trajectories, shows the subject’s fertility, and inspires future explorations. In particular, we want to impress that mereology is much more than the study of axiomatised systems. The relationship between part and whole is a basic schema of cognitive organisation that operates not only at the level of language and propositional thought, but also at the level of sensory input processing, especially visual and auditory. In the natural, social, and human sciences, as well as in the Humanities, part-whole relations organize all three: data domains, methods, and theories. In short, part-whole relations play a fundamental role in how we perceive and interact with nature, how we speak and think about the world and ourselves, as societies and as individuals.