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. 2018;43(2):99-114.
doi: 10.1080/03080188.2018.1453246. Epub 2018 Apr 26.

The practical other: teleology and its development

Josef Perner  1   2 , Beate Priewasser  1   2 , Johannes Roessler  3
Affiliations

The practical other: teleology and its development

Josef Perner et al. Interdiscip Sci Rev. 2018.

Abstract

We argue for teleology as a description of the way in which we ordinarily understand others' intentional actions. Teleology starts from the close resemblance between the reasoning involved in understanding others' actions and one's own practical reasoning involved in deciding what to do. We carve out teleology's distinctive features more sharply by comparing it to its three main competitors: theory theory, simulation theory, and rationality theory. The plausibility of teleology as our way of understanding others is underlined by developmental data in its favour.

Keywords: Theory of mind; counterfactual reasoning; perspective taking; rationality theory; reasons for action; simulation theory; teleology; theory theory.

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Conflict of interest statement

Disclosure statement No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Children’s number of competitive poaching moves in relation to their passing the false belief test. Data from Priewasser, Roessler, and Perner (2013).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Number of children with a majority of pragmatically adequate choices overcoming the mutual exclusivity bias. Data from Gollek and Doherty (2016, Experiments 2 and 3).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Per cent children who give the correct answer to counterfactual and corresponding false belief questions. Data from Leahy, Rafetseder, and Perner (2017).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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