Folk Psychological Narratives: The Sociocultural Basis of Understanding Reasons

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Folk Psychological Narratives The Sociocultural Basis of Understanding Reasons Daniel D. Hutto Folk Psychological Narratives The Sociocultural Basis of Understanding Reasons Daniel D. Hutto Established wisdom in cognitive science holds that the everyday folk psychological abilities of humans—our capacity to understand intentional actions performed for reasons—are inherited from our evolutionary forebears. In Folk Psychological Narratives, Daniel Hutto challenges this view (held in somewhat different forms by the two dominant approaches, “theory theory” and simulation theory) and argues for the sociocultural basis of this familiar ability. He makes a detailed case for the idea that the way we make sense of intentional actions essentially involves the construction of narratives about particular persons. Moreover he argues that children acquire this practical skill only by being exposed to and engaging in a distinctive kind of narrative practice. Hutto calls this developmental proposal the narrative practice hypothesis (NPH). Its core claim is that direct encounters with stories about persons who act for reasons (that is, folk psychological narratives ) supply children with both the basic structure of folk psychology and the norm-governed possibilities for wielding it in practice. In making a strong case for the as yet underexamined idea that our understanding of reasons may be socioculturally grounded, Hutto not only advances and explicates the claims of the NPH, but he also challenges certain widely held assumptions. For example, he targets the idea that the primary function of folk psychology is to enable us to predict the behaviors of others. In this way, Folk Psychological Narratives both clears conceptual space around the dominant approaches for an alternative and offers a groundbreaking proposal. Daniel D. Hutto is Professor of Philosophical Psychology at the University of Hertfordshire. A Bradford Book philosophy/cognitive science “This is a fresh, timely, and thought-provoking book. Daniel Hutto has succeeded admirably in laying out a comprehensive alternative to ‘theory of mind’ approaches to psychological understanding.” —Peter Hobson, Tavistock Professor of Developmental Psychopathology, University of London “This book is a significant contribution to philosophy and psychology. Daniel Hutto has made an original and compelling contribution to debates about the human capacity to understand others.” —Ian Ravenscroft, Philosophy Department, Flinders University Of related interest How the Mind Explains Behavior Folk Explanations, Meaning, and Social Interaction Bertram F. Malle In this provocative monograph, Bertram Malle describes behavior explanations as having a dual nature—as being both cognitive and social acts—and proposes a comprehensive theoretical model that integrates the two aspects. The MIT Press Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142 http://mitpress.mit.edu 978-0-262-08367-6 0-262-08367-1 Folk Psychological Narratives Hutto Cover photograph by Lena Halldenius: bronze age rock carvings, Tanum, Sweden. ...