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NL888 Posted 12 years ago
Grammar
For forming theories of other minds?
Does "for forming theories of other minds" mean "in order to form well-organized explanations about the minds of other people"?
Context:
The idea of psychological by-products grows naturally out of the
important and developing field of evolutionary psychology.
Evolutionary psychologists suggest that, just as the eye is an
evolved organ for seeing, and the wing an evolved organ for flying,
so the brain is a collection of organs (or 'modules') for dealing with
a set of specialist data-processing needs. There is a module for deal-
ing with kinship, a module for dealing with reciprocal exchanges, a
module for dealing with empathy, and so on. Religion can be seen
as a by-product of the misfiring of several of these modules, for
example the modules for forming theories of other minds, for form-
ing coalitions, and for discriminating in favour of in-group
members and against strangers. Any of these could serve as the
human equivalent of the moths' celestial navigation, vulnerable to
misfiring in the same kind of way as I suggested for childhood
gullibility. The psychologist Paul Bloom, another advocate of the
'religion is a by-product' view, points out that children have a
natural tendency towards a dualistic theory of mind. Religion, for
him, is a by-product of such instinctive dualism. We humans, he
suggests, and especially children, are natural born dualists.
Context:
The idea of psychological by-products grows naturally out of the
important and developing field of evolutionary psychology.
Evolutionary psychologists suggest that, just as the eye is an
evolved organ for seeing, and the wing an evolved organ for flying,
so the brain is a collection of organs (or 'modules') for dealing with
a set of specialist data-processing needs. There is a module for deal-
ing with kinship, a module for dealing with reciprocal exchanges, a
module for dealing with empathy, and so on. Religion can be seen
as a by-product of the misfiring of several of these modules, for
example the modules for forming theories of other minds, for form-
ing coalitions, and for discriminating in favour of in-group
members and against strangers. Any of these could serve as the
human equivalent of the moths' celestial navigation, vulnerable to
misfiring in the same kind of way as I suggested for childhood
gullibility. The psychologist Paul Bloom, another advocate of the
'religion is a by-product' view, points out that children have a
natural tendency towards a dualistic theory of mind. Religion, for
him, is a by-product of such instinctive dualism. We humans, he
suggests, and especially children, are natural born dualists.
Top answer
NL888 Does "for forming theories of other minds" mean "in order to form well-organized explanations about the minds of other people"? Yes, but I don't know how "well-organized" they have to be. , each person's mind perceives the world around them based on that person's experience.
- NL888 Does "for forming theories of other minds" mean "in order to form well-organized explanations about the minds of other people"?
- Yes, but I don't know how "well-organized" they have to be.
- , each person's mind perceives the world around them based on that person's experience.
- It's not merely a matter of there being just one mind in the world, the child's own mind, that everyone in the world has access to.
- There exist other minds in the world.
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1 Answers
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NL888Does "for forming theories of other minds" mean "in order to form well-organized explanations about the minds of other people"?Yes, but I don't know how "well-organized" they have to be. Generally, "theory of other minds" refers to the knowledge that children acquire at a certain age (around age 4 if I'm not mistaken) that maybe everybody doesn't know w
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