Understanding the Representational Mind

Introducing basic distinctions in philosophy of mind for characterizing the mental, Perner discusses differences in how commonsense and cognitive psychology view the mind. He traces the onset of a commonsense psychology in the social and emotional awareness of early infancy, revealing how the child begins to take a cognitive, representational view of the mind with repercussions for children's episodic memory, self-control, and their ability to engage in deception. Josef Perner is Lecturer in Experimental Psychology at Sussex University, Brighton, England.