The LCFI website uses cookies only for anonymised website statistics and for ensuring our security, never for tracking or identifying you individually. To find out more, and to find out how we protect your personal information, please read our privacy policy.

Reading Minds & Reading Maps

Ali Boyle (PDRA, Leverhulme CFI/University of Bonn recently wrote a blog post entitled Reading Minds & Reading Maps, published by iCog, a network for postgraduates and early-career researchers working in interdisciplinary cognitive science.

Do nonhuman animals know they’re not alone? Of course they must know there are lots of things in the world around them – rocks, water, trees, other creatures and what have you. But do they know that they inhabit a world populated by minded creatures – that the animals around them see and know things, that they have beliefs, intentions and desires? Can they attribute mental states to other animals, and use those attributions to predict or explain their behaviour? If so, then they’re what philosophers and psychologists call ‘mindreaders’.

Next article

Global AI Narratives - Middle East and North Africa 2019