CogprintsRethinking the ontogeny of mindreading MaurizioTirassaauthorFrancesca M.BoscoauthorLiviaColleauthorWe propose a mentalistic and nativist view of human early mental and social life and of the ontogeny of mindreading. We define the mental state of sharedness as the primitive, one-sided capability to take one's own mental states as mutually known to an i nteractant. We argue that this capability is an innate feature of the human mind, which the child uses to make a subjective sense of the world and of her actions. We argue that the child takes all of her mental states as shared with her caregivers. This a llows her to interact with her caregivers in a mentalistic way from the very beginning and provides the grounds on which the later maturation of mindreading will build. As the latter process occurs, the child begins to understand the mental world in terms of differences between the mental states of different agents; subjectively, this also corresponds to the birth of privateness. ˇNeuropsychologyDevelopmental PsychologyPhilosophy of LanguagePrimatologyComparative PsychologyCognitive PsychologyPhilosophy of MindEvolutionary PsychologyClinical PsychologyPragmaticsSocial PsychologyEpistemology2006ElsevierJournal (Paginated)

For work being deposited by its own author: In self-archiving this collection of files and associated bibliographic metadata, I grant Cogprints the right to store them and to make them permanently available publicly for free on-line. I declare that this material is my own intellectual property and I understand that Cogprints does not assume any responsibility if there is any breach of copyright in distributing these files or metadata. (All authors are urged to prominently assert their copyright on the title page of their work.)

For work being deposited by someone other than its author: I hereby declare that the collection of files and associated bibliographic metadata that I am archiving at Cogprints) is in the public domain. If this is not the case, I accept full responsibility for any breach of copyright that distributing these files or metadata may entail.

Clicking on the deposit button indicates your agreement to these terms.