ABSTRACT
Many philosophers and psychologists would agree that people often predict what another will do in a given situation by imagining being in such a situation and then deciding what to do. In deciding what to do they call on their own motivational and emotional resources and their own capacity for practical reasoning. But like actors, they modify these resources as needed, on the basis of evidence, especially the other’s past and present behavior. A similar story holds for attributing mental states to others and explaining their actions. That people do sometimes resort to such simulation is not in serious dispute. What is in dispute is the claim that simulation is fundamental to folk psychology or at least is of deep psychological and philosophical significance. In this essay I address some narrower issues that I believe have a considerable bearing on the question of psychological and philosophical significance. They chiefly concern what may be called the epistemology of simulation.
