Against the theory of ‘Theory of Mind’

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to argue against the view that young children develop a ‘theory’ that people have minds, and to suggest reasons why children's concepts of the mind and of mental states are not adequately characterized as ‘theoretical’ in nature. I propose that what children acquire is knowledge of persons with minds, and that they do so through experience of interpersonal relations. I emphasize that infants' capacity for personal relatedness, the psychological bedrock for their understanding of persons, is partly constituted by innately determined perceptual-affective sensibilities towards the bodily appearances and behaviour of others. It is likely that children come to make inferences in the course of enriching and systematizing their concepts of mind, but this does not justify the view that ‘mental states’ are hypothetical constructs.