Date of Award
Summer 8-1-2010
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
Philosophy
First Advisor
Dr. Daniel Weiskopf
Second Advisor
Dr. George Graham
Third Advisor
Dr. Eddy Nahmias
Fourth Advisor
Dr. Andrea Scarantino
Abstract
Mindreading is the capacity to attribute psychological states to others and to use those attributions to explain, predict, and understand others’ behaviors. In the past thirty years, mindreading has become the topic of substantial interdisciplinary research and theorizing, with philosophers, psychologists and, more recently, neuroscientists, all contributing to the debate about the nature of the neuropsychological mechanisms that constitute the capacity for mindreading. In this thesis I push this debate forward by using recent results from developmental psychology as the basis for critiques of two prominent views of mindreading. First, I argue that the developmental studies provide evidence of infant mindreading and therefore expose a flaw in José Bermúdez’s view that certain forms of mindreading require language possession. Second, I argue that the evidence of infant mindreading can also be used to undermine Alvin Goldman’s version of Simulation Theory.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.57709/1354794
Recommended Citation
DeChant, Ryan C., "Mindreading, Language and Simulation." Thesis, Georgia State University, 2010.
doi: https://doi.org/10.57709/1354794