ABSTRACT
It is undeniable that children develop intellectually and socially before they talk and that those around them respond to what they do and have ideas about why they do it. What we make of these phenomena is another matter. This discussion will center on two problems with the way in which these observations have been conceptualized. One is the tendency of set up false oppositions, that is, oppositions between alternatives that are either inconceivable or that are orthogonal to one another. The other is the tendency to treat as empirical problems issues that are logical or interpretive. Related to this is a tendency to count as fact interpretations based on circumstantial evidence. One response to these problems might be to formulate more “testable” hypotheses than has been done and gather more data. I will argue otherwise. We need to sort out and reclaim the larger issues and exploit more fully the circumstantial evidence we have.
