Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2plfb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T15:56:44.287Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Reasoning asymmetries do not invalidate theory-theory

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 October 2010

Karen Bartsch
Affiliation:
Psychology Department 3415, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY 82071-3415. [email protected]@uwyo.eduhttp://uwadmnweb.uwyo.edu/psychology/displayfaculty.asp?facultyid=1285
Tess N. Young
Affiliation:
Psychology Department 3415, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY 82071-3415. [email protected]@uwyo.eduhttp://uwadmnweb.uwyo.edu/psychology/displayfaculty.asp?facultyid=1285

Abstract

In this commentary we suggest that asymmetries in reasoning associated with moral judgment do not necessarily invalidate a theory-theory account of naïve psychological reasoning. The asymmetries may reflect a core knowledge assumption that human nature is prosocial, an assumption that heightens vigilance for antisocial dispositions, which in turn leads to differing assumptions about what is the presumed topic of conversation.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Gopnik, A. & Wellman, H. M. (1992) Why the child's theory of mind really is a theory. Mind and Language 7:145–71.Google Scholar
Haidt, J. (2001) The emotional dog and its rational tail: A social intuitionist approach to moral judgment. Psychological Review 108:814–34.Google Scholar
Hamlin, J. K., Wynn, K. & Bloom, P. (2007) Social evaluation by preverbal infants. Nature 450:557–59.Google Scholar
Hitchcock, C. & Knobe, J. (2009) Cause and norm. Journal of Philosophy 106(11):587612.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hoffman, M. L. (2000) Empathy and moral development. Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roxborough, C. & Cumby, J. (2009) Folk psychological concepts: Causation. Philosophical Psychology 22:205–13.Google Scholar
Spelke, E. S. & Kinzler, K. D. (2007) Core knowledge. Developmental Science 10:8996.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Turiel, E. (2006) The development of morality. In: Handbook of child psychology, vol. 3: Social, emotional, and personality development, 6th edition, ed. Eisenberg, N., pp. 789857. Wiley.Google Scholar