Recent studies demonstrated that 15-month-olds selectivelyrespond to others’ (false) beliefs. According to an epistemicmentalist interpretation, this attests that 15-month-olds possess arudimentary capacity to attribute beliefs. Weaker interpretationssuggest instead that infants are only sensitive to others’ (false)beliefs because they can detect their proximal correlates. Thesetwo opposed interpretations often appeal to principled objections.In contrast, I argue that the dispute can be brought back to itsempirical basis if we clearly explain what it means having ‘tacit’or ‘implicit’ knowledge of a theory. I introduce a definition oftacit knowledge based on the notion of structural similarity, and Idiscuss some crucial experiments that may be conducted to assessthe validity of the epistemic mentalist interpretation.
Rappresentazione tacita della conoscenza e interpretazione delle capacità di cognizione sociale nella prima infanzia
Fenici M
Writing – Original Draft Preparation
2013-01-01
Abstract
Recent studies demonstrated that 15-month-olds selectivelyrespond to others’ (false) beliefs. According to an epistemicmentalist interpretation, this attests that 15-month-olds possess arudimentary capacity to attribute beliefs. Weaker interpretationssuggest instead that infants are only sensitive to others’ (false)beliefs because they can detect their proximal correlates. Thesetwo opposed interpretations often appeal to principled objections.In contrast, I argue that the dispute can be brought back to itsempirical basis if we clearly explain what it means having ‘tacit’or ‘implicit’ knowledge of a theory. I introduce a definition oftacit knowledge based on the notion of structural similarity, and Idiscuss some crucial experiments that may be conducted to assessthe validity of the epistemic mentalist interpretation.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
