The Phenomenology of Robots

Kinyon, Kamila "The Phenomenology of Robots: Confrontations with Death in Karel Capek's R.U.R." SFS #79, 26.3 (November 1999): 379-400.

Looks at R. U. R. and Hegel's Phenomenolgy of Mind to understand factors responsible for the development of independent self-consciousness in R.U.R.'s robots ("biomechanical beings," which today we'd probably call androids). (Maly, 02/07/02)

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As of 26 May 2019, the Abstract (pp. 399-400) is missing from the SFS on-line version of the essay linked above in Note 1. From that Abstract: This essay examines how the robots' various confrontation with death in [...] R.U.R. reflect the author's explicit response to prevailing philosophical concepts of his time, especially those of Kant and Hegel. The robot Radius, for example, is a classic instance of the Hegelian master who risks death for recognition, asserting his authority over human slaves. By contrast, the robot Damon initially follows the Kantian categorial imperative in his submission to inflexible ethical law, only to apprehend and affirm his individuality at the moment of death. Damon's philosophical importance as an exemplification of Čapek's critique of the Kantian precept of duty was lost to English language readers when the character was cut from Paul Selver's 1923 translation. Claudia Novack-Jones, in her 1989 translation of R.U.R. restored the excised passages, though some of her decisions [...] eliminated suggestive ambiguities in the original Czech. [...]

The essay quotes from the play in the original, with translations Kinyon considers more exact.

Expanded RDE, completing, 26May19