ABSTRACT
Human society is an interaction of minds. A central question is how minds understand each other. Two fundamental positions have been proposed. People have folk-psychological knowledge of what goes on in other people's minds and how that makes them act in particular situations. This kind of knowledge has been dubbed a “theory” (Churchland, 1981; Fodor, 1987) and the theoretical position the “Theory Theory” (TT). Alternatively, people imagine themselves being in another person's situation and thereby generate the same mental processes and action tendencies that the other person has in that situation, and then attribute the thus activated mental states and action tendencies to the other person. This process has been dubbed “replication” (Heal, 1986) and more commonly “simulation” (Gordon, 1986) and the theoretical position the “Simulation Theory” (ST).
