Social Cognition and the Problem of Other Minds

Abstract

John R. Shook rejects traditional philosophical and psychological approaches to the problem of other minds, which unjustifiably isolate internal mind from external world and wrongly prioritize individualistic and reductivist explanations for cognition. Both philosophical considerations and recent social neuroscience point the way toward a thoroughly social approach to the development of mentality in the context of cooperative interaction. Key features of cognition such as joint attention, intentionality, and agency naturally emerge in young childhood through participation in group activities. Understanding of other minds gradually emerges right along in step with the development of one’s own mind, so the philosophical “problem” of knowing other minds is sociologically dissolved.