Words, Thoughts, and Theories

"Beyond the good science that they contribute to their ownidea... it is surprising and wonderful how Gopnik and Meltzofftranscend their own field to demonstratethe relevance of theirresearch to other disciplines." Shaun Gallagher , Journal of Consciousness Studies "The book is astonishing in its scope and clarity. It successfullyintegrates philosophy, cognitive development, and cognitive science in away that has rarely if ever been done. The idea that childrendevelop theories which evolve and reorganize into newer and more powerfultheories, like mini-scientists, is of course not new; but in Gopnik andMeltzoff's hands it received a thorough treatment, across such a wide rangeof domains." Simon Baron-Cohen, Lecturer in Psychopathology, Departments ofExperimental Psychology and Psychiatry, University of Cambridge

Jeffrey Rosenschein is the Sam and Will Strauss Professor of Computer Science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

The other Socratic method: Socrates's problem; Augustine's problem; a road map. Part 1 The theory theory: the scientist as child - but surely it can't really be a theory? a cognitive view of science, naturalistic epistemology and development - an evolutionary speculation, science as horticulture, objections - sociology, objections - timing and convergence, objections - magic, empirical advances, what is theory? structural features of theories, functional features of theories, dynamic features of theories, theories in childhood, theories as representations; theories, modules, and empirical generalizations - modules, theories and development, modules and development, modularity in peripheral and central processing, empirical generalization - scripts, narratives, and nets, interactions among theories, modules, and empirical generalizations, nonconceptual development - information processing and social construction. Part 2 Evidence for the theory theory: the child's theory of appearances - the adult theory, the initial theory, the paradox of invisible objects, an alternative - a theory-change account, the nine-month-old's theory, the A-not-B error as an auxiliary hypothesis, the 18-month-old's theory, other evidence for the theory theory, semantic developments - from objects permanence to perspective taking, later semantic developments - "gone" and "see", conclusion; the child's theory of action - the adult theory, the initial theory, the nine-month-old's theory, the 18-month-old's theory, other evidence for the theory theory, semantic development - "no", "uh-oh" and "there", later developments - from actions to desires, later semantic developments - "want", conclusion; the child's theory of kinds - the adult theory, categories and kinds, the initial theory, the nine-month-old's theory, the 18-month-old's theory;, other evidence for the theory theory, semantic development - the naming Spurt, later developments, conclusion. Part 3 Theories and language: language and thought - prerequisites, interactions, a theory-theory view, methodological issues - specificity and correlation, developmental relations between language and cognition, theories and constraints, crosslinguistic studies, individual-difference studies, conclusion; the Darwinian conclusion - who's afraid of semantic holism? a developmental cognitive science, computational and neurological mechanisms, after Piaget, sailing in Neurath's boat.