Folk psychological narratives : The sociocultural basis of understanding reasons

Abstract

Folk psychology is a philosopher’s label for the practice of making sense of intentional actions, minimally, by appeal to an agent’s motivating beliefs and desires. It is the sort of thing one does, for example, when digesting Jane’s explanation of her late arrival at a meeting because she mistakenly thought it was being held in a different room. Taking our friend at her word (i.e. if we assume that she had genuinely wanted to attend the meeting on time), we will blame the content of her beliefs for the confusion on this occasion. This is something we do, and have the standing capacity to do, unthinkingly. We rely on it constantly.