Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface
- 1 Introduction
- Part I What is acquired – theory-theory versus simulation-theory
- 2 ‘Radical’ simulationism
- 3 Simulation and self-knowledge: a defence of theory-theory
- 4 Varieties of off-line simulation
- 5 Simulation, theory, and content
- 6 Simulation as explicitation of predication-implicit knowledge about the mind: arguments for a simulation-theory mix
- 7 Folk psychology and theoretical status
- 8 The mental simulation debate: a progress report
- Part II Modes of acquisition – theorising, learning, and modularity
- Part III Failures of acquisition – explaining autism
- Part IV Wider perspectives – evolution and theory of mind
- References
- Author index
- Subject index
7 - Folk psychology and theoretical status
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 May 2011
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface
- 1 Introduction
- Part I What is acquired – theory-theory versus simulation-theory
- 2 ‘Radical’ simulationism
- 3 Simulation and self-knowledge: a defence of theory-theory
- 4 Varieties of off-line simulation
- 5 Simulation, theory, and content
- 6 Simulation as explicitation of predication-implicit knowledge about the mind: arguments for a simulation-theory mix
- 7 Folk psychology and theoretical status
- 8 The mental simulation debate: a progress report
- Part II Modes of acquisition – theorising, learning, and modularity
- Part III Failures of acquisition – explaining autism
- Part IV Wider perspectives – evolution and theory of mind
- References
- Author index
- Subject index
Summary
Introduction
Is folk psychology a theory? Permissive use of the term ‘theory’ makes it too easy to say yes, and may mask differences between varieties of theory-theory just as important as the well-known disagreement with the simulationists. In this paper I want to consider to what extent the postulation of a theoretical structure can help us understand the cognitive processing involved in our understanding of minds and behaviour. I shall be arguing, largely on methodological grounds, for a particular version of theory-theory according to which common-sense psychology has a core rather like the hard core of a Lakatosian research programme (Lakatos, 1970, 1978).
My strategy will be entirely conditional: if we are going to be theory-theorists, then this is the variety of theory-theory we should go for. I will not, therefore, be directly opposing the full-blown versions of simulation theory championed by Robert Gordon and Alvin Goldman (Gordon, 1986, 1992a, 1995; Goldman, 1989, 1992b). But it is important to the variety of theory-theory I advocate that it actually needs to be complemented by the modest form of simulationism argued for by Jane Heal (Heal, 1986, 1994, this volume).
Why call folk psychology / theory of mind (a) theory?
We can introduce a major division within theory-theory by asking: is folk psychology a single theory – or at least does it have a single core theory at its centre? Talk of folk psychology need not presuppose a theory.
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- Theories of Theories of Mind , pp. 105 - 118Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1996
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