Abstract

Does the robot actually look, does the robot actually feel? 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 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.