ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that in order to talk about human–robot interaction it is paramount to analyze how and whether humans and robots can understand each other. It will be shown that understanding in a social interaction is guided by observations made and interpretations of a given situation as well as influenced by personal, cultural experiences of the observer. To this extent, the socio-phenomenological approach of Alfred Schutz on human–human interaction will shed light on the possibilities and problems of understanding in human–robot interaction. Schutz uses an analogy of wood cutting to explain the role of the observer and how we understand and bestow meaning onto the observed. He differentiates between three levels of understanding and what wood cutting can mean for the observer. The chapter shows that understanding always needs higher cognitive capacities in order to draw conclusions from the observed behavior of another being.
