Abstract

This essay aims to criticize the dualism of social robotics which has led to the distinction between an “internalµ approach and an “externalµ approach in the robotic modeling of emotions. Whereas internal robotics focuses on the design of emotional internal processes, external robotics, on the other hand, focuses on the “simulationµ of emotional behaviors of artificial agents without internal states. In this distinction we can find some typical conceptual pairs of dualism, such as internal/external, emotion/expression, intra-individual/ inter-individual; and we also find the difficulties of the “other mindsµ problem. In contrast to this line of thought with regard to emotional phenomena, some approaches of social robotics will be outlined, which embrace the theses of the new 4E cognitive sciences. From this point of view, emotions are no longer understood as internal private states, but as “reactionsµ, which are directly in contact with the world and with the emotions of others.