Argument
Theory of mind
Overview
In psychology and philosophy, theory of mind (often abbreviated to ToM) is the capacity to understand other individuals by ascribing mental states to them. A theory of mind includes the understanding that others' beliefs, desires, intentions, emotions, and thoughts may be different from one's own. Possessing a functional theory of mind is crucial for success in everyday human social interactions. People use a theory of mind when analyzing, judging, and inferring other people's behaviors.
Theory of mind was first conceptualized by researchers evaluating the presence of theory of mind in animals. Today, theory of mind research also investigates factors affecting theory of mind in humans, such as whether drug and alcohol consumption, language development, cognitive delays, age, and culture can affect a person's capacity to display theory of mind.
It has been proposed that deficits in theory of mind may occur in people with autism, anorexia nervosa, schizophrenia, dysphoria, addiction, and brain damage caused by alcohol's neurotoxicity. Neuroimaging shows that the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), the posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS), the precuneus, and the amygdala are associated with theory of mind tasks. Patients with frontal lobe or temporoparietal junction lesions find some theory of mind tasks difficult. One's theory of mind develops in childhood as the prefrontal cortex develops.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
Found by search and not yet checked by a person; they may only mention the idea in passing.
We have not, however, as many different senses as there are nerves. We can distinguish but seven principal classes of nerves, of which two belong to the internal, and the other five to the external senses. The nerves which extend to the stomach, the oesophagus, the fauces, and the other internal parts that are subservient to our natural wants, constitute one of our internal senses. This is called the natural…
René Descartes, Selections from the Principles of Philosophy
States what Theory of mind is; the author is tied to Theory of mind in the knowledge graph.
What are termed faculties--attention, memory, thinking, perception, even the sentiments, are arrangements, associations, and complications, formed by the interaction of these submerged presentations with one another and with new presentations. Perception, for example, is the complication of presentations which result from the rise of old presentations to greet and combine with new ones; memory is the evoking of an…
John Dewey, Democracy and Education
States what Theory of mind is.
It hardly need be said that Locke has great difficulty in keeping up this thoroughly atomic theory of mind. It is a theory which makes all relations external; they are, as Locke afterwards says, "superinduced" upon the facts. It makes it impossible to account for any appearance of unity and connection among ideas, and Locke quietly, and without any consciousness of the contradiction involved, introduces certain…
John Dewey, Leibniz's New Essays Concerning the Human Understanding
Opens on Theory of mind; names Theory of mind.
Philosophers who discussed Theory of mind
Related ideas
- Belief
- Contextualism
- Emotion
- Mirror neuron
- Genetics
- Operant conditioning
- Philosophy
- Iran
- Individualism
- Desire
- Mind
- Prefrontal cortex
- Social relation
- Mental state
- Neuron
- Qualia
- Ontogeny
- Functional magnetic resonance imaging
- Psychology
- René Descartes
- Social psychology
- Schizophrenia
- Brain injury
- Empirical evidence
Place in the tradition
Part of Consciousness.