Hostname: page-component-6d856f89d9-jrqft Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-16T04:15:05.221Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Why is knowledge faster than (true) belief?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 November 2021

Evan Westra*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, York University, Toronto, ONM3J 1P3, Canada. ewestra@yorku.ca; https://sites.google.com/site/ewestraphilosophy

Abstract

Phillips and colleagues convincingly argue that knowledge attribution is a faster, more automatic form of mindreading than belief attribution. However, they do not explain what it is about knowledge attribution that lends it this cognitive advantage. I suggest an explanation of the knowledge-attribution advantage that would also help to distinguish it from belief-based and minimalist alternatives.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

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

Burge, T. (2018). Do infants and nonhuman animals attribute mental states? Psychological Review, 125(3), 409434. https://doi.org/10.1037/rev0000091.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Butterfill, S., & Apperly, I. (2013). How to construct a minimal theory of mind. Mind and Language, 28(5), 606637.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fabricius, W. V., Boyer, T. W., Weimer, A. A., & Carroll, K. (2010). True or false: Do 5-year-olds understand belief? Developmental Psychology, 46(6), 14021416. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0017648.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fizke, E., Barthel, D., Peters, T., & Rakoczy, H. (2014). Executive function plays a role in coordinating different perspectives, particularly when one's own perspective is involved. Cognition, 130(3), 315334. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2013.11.017.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Horschler, D. J., Santos, L. R., & MacLean, E. L. (2019). Do non-human primates really represent others’ ignorance? A test of the awareness relations hypothesis. Cognition, 190, 7280. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2019.04.012.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nagel, J. (2019). Epistemic territory. Proceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophical Association, 93, 6786.Google Scholar
Rakoczy, H., Bergfeld, D., Schwarz, I., & Fizke, E. (2015). Explicit theory of mind is even more unified than previously assumed: Belief ascription and understanding aspectuality emerge together in development. Child Development, 86(2), 486502. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12311.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schuwerk, T., Schecklmann, M., Langguth, B., Döhnel, K., Sodian, B., & Sommer, M. (2014). Inhibiting the posterior medial prefrontal cortex by rTMS decreases the discrepancy between self and other in theory of mind reasoning. Behavioural Brain Research, 274, 312318. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbr.2014.08.031.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sperber, D., Fabrice, C., Heintz, C., Mascaro, O., Mercier, H., Origgi, G., & Wilson, D. (2010). Epistemic vigilance. Mind & Language, 25(4), 359393. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1468-0017.2010.01394.x.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Westra, E., & Nagel, J. (2021). Mindreading in conversation. Cognition, 210, 104618. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2021.104618.CrossRefGoogle Scholar