Por Tobias Schlicht (Ruhr-Universität Bochum).

Discussions on social cognition are typically focused on the various strategies we can use to understand each other. Sometimes we can simply perceive another’s emotion in their facial and bodily expression, sometimes we rely on a body of knowledge to attribute beliefs or desires, and at other times we put ourselves in their mental shoes. Direct face-to-face interaction, in contrast to mere observation, has been recognized to be highly relevant for the application of such strategies and the kind of understanding of the other’s mindset. But it is rarely if never specified what interaction amounts to and what makes an interaction a social interaction rather than an engagement with a physical object. This question becomes more relevant in light of technological progress in social robotics where the question is whether we should take the intentional or design stance towards such AI systems which may either remain physical tools or turn into colleagues and friends. It is also relevant when we consider the ways humans interact with each other via social media or video calls, for example, since many features of “typical” social interactions may be absent, such as sharing a common situation or embodiment. We may mistakenly identify bots as other agents, for example. I will introduce a strategy to approach the question, which is work in progress.

Bio: Tobias Schlicht is Professor of Philosophy at Ruhr-Universität Bochum. He is interested in questions regarding cognition and consciousness, has written three books on the mind-body problem and on social cognition, edited various collections and special issues on topics in cognitive science such as mental representation, and published papers on topics in this area.

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