Kinds of Agents: The Origins of Understanding Instrumental and Communicative Agency

György Gergely*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to Book/Report typesChapterpeer-review

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationThe Wiley-Blackwell Handbook of Childhood Cognitive Development, Second edition
PublisherWiley-Blackwell
Pages76-105
Number of pages30
ISBN (Print)9781405191166
DOIs
StatePublished - 15 Jul 2010

Keywords

  • Criteria for adequate developmental theory of understanding intentional agency
  • Goal attribution versus preference attribution - role of perception of rational choice
  • Identifying intentional agency - self-propulsion versus rational choice of action
  • Kinds of agents - origins of understanding, instrumental and communicative agency
  • Modularist "theory-of-mind" account
  • Preverbal understanding of other minds - beginnings of a paradigm change
  • Principle-based inferential process - attributing goals to actions
  • Representational and inferential properties of human-specific cognitive adaptations - in understanding teleological versus communicative agency
  • Teleological and mentalistic representations of actions

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