ABSTRACT
Dennett defends an avowedly ‘instrumentalist’ conception of minds: the utility of talk about minds and their contents – beliefs, desires, and the like – depends on the usefulness of such talk in description and explanation. A doctrine of this kind could be contrasted with ‘realist’ conceptions of the mind. Realists take talk of minds, their states, and their contents to be on a par with talk of planets, rocks, and trees. Beliefs, desires, pains, and emotions are genuine constituents of the world, constituents that gure in real mechanisms responsible for the production of intelligent behavior.
