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The cultural evolution of mind-modelling

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Moore, Richard (2020) The cultural evolution of mind-modelling. Synthese . doi:10.1007/s11229-020-02853-3 ISSN 0039-7857.

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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11229-020-02853-3

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Abstract

I argue that uniquely human forms of ‘Theory of Mind’ (or ‘ToM’) are a product of cultural evolution. Specifically, propositional attitude psychology is a linguistically constructed folk model of the human mind, invented by our ancestors for a range of tasks and refined over successive generations of users. The construction of these folk models gave humans new tools for thinking and reasoning about mental states—and so imbued us with abilities not shared by non-linguistic species. I also argue that uniquely human forms of ToM are not required for language development, such that an account of the cultural origins of ToM does not jeopardise the explanation of language development. Finally, I sketch a historical model of the cultural evolution of mental state talk.

Item Type: Journal Article
Subjects: B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BD Speculative Philosophy
B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology
H Social Sciences > HM Sociology
P Language and Literature > P Philology. Linguistics
Divisions: Faculty of Social Sciences > Philosophy
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): Philosophy of mind, Social evolution , Language acquisition , Cognitive psychology
Journal or Publication Title: Synthese
Publisher: Springer
ISSN: 0039-7857
Official Date: 18 September 2020
Dates:
DateEvent
18 September 2020Published
31 August 2020Accepted
DOI: 10.1007/s11229-020-02853-3
Status: Peer Reviewed
Publication Status: Published
Access rights to Published version: Open Access (Creative Commons)
Date of first compliant deposit: 15 July 2021
Date of first compliant Open Access: 15 July 2021
RIOXX Funder/Project Grant:
Project/Grant IDRIOXX Funder NameFunder ID
RSSS Visiting FellowshipAustralian National Universityhttp://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000995
UNSPECIFIEDUK Research and Innovationhttp://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100014013
Is Part Of: 1

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