Editorial: Social cognition: Mindreading and alternatives

Authors

Daniel Hutto, University of Hertfordshire
M Herschbach, University of California San Diego
V Southgate, University of London

RIS ID

80462

Publication Details

Hutto, D., Herschbach, M. and Southgate, V. (2011). Editorial: Social cognition: Mindreading and alternatives. Review of Philosophy and Psychology, 2 (3), 375-395.

Abstract

Human beings, even very young infants, and members of several other species, exhibit remarkable capacities for attending to and engaging with others. These basic capacities have been the subject of intense research in developmental psychology, cognitive psychology, comparative psychology, neuroscience, and philosophy of mind over the last several decades. Appropriately characterizing the exact level and nature of these abilities and what lies at their basis continues to prove a tricky business.

The contributions to this special issue investigate whether and to what extent the exercise of such capacities count as, or are best explained by, a genuine understanding of minds, where such understanding depends on the creatures in question possessing capacities for attributing a range of mental states and their contents in systematic ways. The question that takes center stage is: Do the capacities for attending to and engaging with others in question involve mindreading or is this achieved by other means?