This book offers arguments against the view that interpersonal understanding involves a ''folk'' or ''commonsense'' psychology, a view which Ratcliffe suggests is a theoretically motivated abstraction. His alternative account draws on phenomenology, neuroscience and developmental psychology, exploring patterned interactions in shared social situations.

This book offers arguments against the view that interpersonal understanding involves a ''folk'' or ''commonsense'' psychology, a view which Ratcliffe suggests is a theoretically motivated abstraction. His alternative account draws on phenomenology, neuroscience and developmental psychology, exploring patterned interactions in shared social situations.