Philosophy of Social Cognition

225 Pages·2022·4.674 MB·English

by  Tobias Schlicht

PALGRAVE PHILOSOPHY TODAY
Philosophy of
Social Cognition
Tobias Schlicht
Palgrave Philosophy Today
Series Editor
Vittorio Bufacchi
Philosophy
University College Cork Philosophy
Cork, Ireland
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subject.
Tobias Schlicht
Philosophy of Social
Cognition
Tobias Schlicht
Philosophy
Ruhr-Universität Bochum
Bochum, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany
ISSN 2947-9339 ISSN 2947-9347 (electronic)
Palgrave Philosophy Today
ISBN 978-3-031-14490-5 ISBN 978-3-031-14491-2 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-14491-2
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In loving memory of my father
Preface
All aspects of our lives involve social interaction, either directly or indirectly.
Writing books is no exception, and finishing this book involved years of studying
the rich literature from diverse disciplines, not only philosophy. But more impor-
tantly, I think, it is informed by lots of discussions with many colleagues and friends.
Thus, since it is a prime example of learning from others, its process of development
is intimately interwoven with the subject matter it is dealing with: understanding
and interacting with others.
This book started out as more or less the project of translating my German intro-
duction into this topic from 2018 into English. But it turned out quickly that the
rapid pace with which the debate about the nature of social understanding proceeds
requires several adjustments in the overall structure of the book and the addition of
new chapters. My own thinking about these matters has developed during the last
several years obviously, and this had to be taken into account as well. The result is
a more or less new manuscript, but one that still owes a lot to the former German
ancestor.
Thus, it is natural to thank the many people with whom I have discussed these
topics, who helped me to clarify my interpretations of theories, gain a better under-
standing of the empirical data and comprehend the complex relations between the
theories discussed here. First and foremost, my thanks go to my former and actual
team members in Bochum: Mark-Oliver Casper, Krzysztof Dolega, Paola Gega,
Keith Harris, François Kammerer, Judith Martens, Firuze Mullaoglu, Nina Poth,
Andreea Potinteu, Bartosz Radomski, Luke Roelofs, Matt Sims, Joulia Smortchkova,
Caroline Stankozi, Tobias Starzak, Elmarie Venter and Alfredo Vernazzani. Over the
years, not only in intense discussions, but via their own original work, and through
ideas worked out together in co-authored papers, they have shaped the content of
this book or played a decisive role in getting the book into shape. Many of them
have also read several chapters of the book and made invaluable suggestions for
improvement. My secretary, Carolin Wolters-Telle, always keeps administrative
challenges in check and helps organizing our team efficiently. I can consider myself
lucky to be able to rely on such a kind and competent team!
vii
viii Preface
I also received support from beyond my close team. First of all, I would like to
thank my long-time collaborator, Albert Newen. He has supported me in many ways
since 2006, partly very personally, but also in principle through his tireless initia-
tives, with which he has shaped the Institute for Philosophy II in Bochum and the
Center for Mind and Cognition into an excellent, extremely dynamic and interna-
tionally visible workplace. I want to thank him for shaping my ideas and for being
such a kind and reliable partner in many projects. One of these projects sticks out
and put me in a very advantageous situation. In 2018, Josef Perner contacted Albert
and myself, and together with Hans-Johann Glock in Zürich we put together an
innovative research project on the “structure and development of understanding
actions and reasons” that lasted from 2019 to 2022. I would like to thank the German
Science Foundation for fostering this exchange (grant no. SCHL 588/3-1). Thinking
about Josef’s teleological approach to social understanding and the application of
the mental files framework together in intense reading groups and workshops put
many ideas in perspective, especially with respect to interpretations of infant’s per-
formance in spontaneous false-belief tasks. I cherished our regular reading group
and discussion and the friendly atmosphere within this collaborative project. Apart
from Albert, Josef and Hanjo, I would like to thank Johannes Brandl, Frank Esken,
Michael Hümer, Anna Krämer, Franziska Poprawe, Beate Priewasser, Eva
Rafetseder, Eva Schmidt, Anna Strasser and Julia Wolf for valuable discussions and
input. Special thanks go to Anna, Julia, Johannes and Josef for reading large por-
tions of the manuscript and for helping me to make things clearer in many places.
Since 2009, I have benefitted from the financial support from the Volkswagen
Foundation. They have funded some of my research projects, and most importantly,
granted me a Lichtenberg Professorship in 2014. This funding provided the founda-
tion for building a wonderful team of researchers and for inviting even more inter-
national guests to our Institute for Philosophy and Center for Mind and Cognition
in Bochum. Over the years, I had the privilege to learn from many of them and
discuss with them their fascinating ideas face to face. I would like to express my
gratitude for important advice and explanations, for inspiration and correction, to
Ken Aizawa, Andy Clark, Daniel Dennett, Frances Egan, Uta and Chris Frith, Shaun
Gallagher, Cecilia Heyes, Jakob Hohwy, Dan Hutto, Robert Matthews, Richard
Menary, Erik Myin, Vasudevi Reddy, Leonhard Schilbach, Shannon Spaulding,
Bert Timmermans, Kai Vogeley, Karina Vold and Dan Zahavi.
J. Suilin Lavelle, Stephen Butterfill and Rob Rupert have been my guests in
Bochum for several research visits, with substantial financial support from the RUB
Research School and from the Humboldt Foundation. All three of them share a
genuine interest in empirically informed philosophy of mind. Suilin and Stephen
have written excellent introductions to the social and developing mind themselves –
which I highly recommend here. While Suilin and I have been working on our first
books on this topic roughly at the same time in 2017 and 2018, Rob and Steve have
generously supported my whole team in numerous ways over the years, via discus-
sions, work-in-progress groups and even teaching. The many discussions with them
have strongly influenced my thinking and have been fed into this book. They all
deserve great thanks for being such dear friends and colleagues.
Preface ix
Just after I had negotiated the book contract with Palgrave Macmillan, I was
elected dean of the faculty. What a nightmare, some might think, but things got
worse with Covid-19 hitting the world, forcing us all to recalibrate our lives, work
from home etc. I have to thank several people who made it actually possible for me
to write this book anyway. I could not have fulfilled my duties as dean in any way
without the director of our dean’s office, Annett Schmeck, whose competence, sense
of humour and friendship not only made being dean an endurable job (no one wants
to do it, really), but actual fun, most of the time. Thanks also go to my other col-
leagues in the deanery, vice dean Grit im Brahm, who filled in for me more often
than required of her, and Annette Lukas whose reliability and supportive attitude in
the day-to-day business of leading a faculty cannot be overestimated.
Nevertheless, these duties and the pandemic led to substantial delays, and I
would like to thank the editor, Brendan George, and the editorial assistant, Eliana
Rangel, at Palgrave Macmillan, for their patience and swift and flexible manage-
ment skills, and for their acceptance and publication of the manuscript.
Finally, I would like to thank my family for their unconditional moral support
and love. First of all, my dear wife, Verena, and our beloved wonderful children,
Mathilde and Johann, whose adventures sometimes feature in the examples given in
the book. They have not only made this book possible through their love, under-
standing, and trust; they have also supported me in an exemplary way through their
social competence and empathy and have vividly subjected the dry contents of the
book to an empirical test. I would like to thank my mother, Margret, who has made
many sacrifices over the decades and helped enable my career choice. She also
always expresses the deepest interest in what I do, just like my brother Peter. Many
thanks to him and his family, Rita, Barbara and Berthe. My thanks extend also to
Barbara, Bernhard and Daniela Büter for their continued support and for welcoming
me into their family.
My father passed away in 2016. He enabled and followed my academic path with
great interest. And he was a natural expert in social interaction which made him
very successful and respected in his profession and an esteemed friend for many.
Being a good mindreader and filled with a healthy dose of empathy, he would have
loved to see this result of my research, I am sure. I miss him and dedicate this book
to his memory.
Bochum, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany Tobias Schlicht
Contents
1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1 Some Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.2 The Problem of Other Minds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.3 The Social Character of Cognition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
1.4 Mindshaping, Stereotyping and Social Categorization . . . . . . . . . . 10
1.5 Mental States: Intentionality and Phenomenality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
1.6 Levels of Description and Explanation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
1.7 Brief Chapter Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
1.8 Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
1.9 Study Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
2 Theory-Theories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
2.1 Anthropological Science Fiction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
2.1.1 From Behaviourism to Functionalism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
2.1.2 The Status of Folk Psychology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
2.2 Children as Scientists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
2.2.1 Properties of Theories and Developmental Progress . . . . . . 29
2.2.2 Theory Change and Bayesian Learning Mechanisms . . . . . 32
2.2.3 Experimentation and Cultural Learning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
2.3 Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
2.4 Study Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
3 Modularity-Theories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
3.1 Carey and Spelke’s Theory of Core Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
3.2 Baron-Cohen‘s Modularity-Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
3.2.1 The Modularity of Mind . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
3.2.2 Modularity and Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
3.3 Autism as an Impairment of Social Interaction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
3.4 Challenges for Modularity-Theories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
xi