The Developing Mind ― A Philosophical Introduction

The development of children’s minds raises fundamental psychological and scientific questions, from how we are able to know about and describe basic aspects of the world such as words, numbers and colours to how we come to grasp causes, actions and intentions. This is the first book to properly introduce and examine philosophical questions concerning children’s cognitive development and considers the implications of scientific breakthroughs for the philosophy of developmental psychology.

Each chapter explores a central topic in developmental psychology from a philosophical perspective:

• social interaction and the developing mind
• children's awareness of objects and the question of 'object permanence'
• knowledge of numbers
• children and the acquisition of knowledge of colour
• language acquisition and the 'mapping problem'
• children's knowledge of the relation between actions and goals
• belief acquisition and the developing mind.

Throughout the book Stephen Butterfill draws on several important case studies, including experiments with children on memory, ‘false belief tasks’, and the process by which children come to see other people, not just themselves, as capable of experience. He shows how these questions can illuminate some fundamental debates in philosophy of mind, such as the mind’s possession of concepts, rationality and the mind, the possibility of objective thought, and the nature of perceptual experience.

Additional features, such as chapter summaries, annotated further reading and a glossary provide helpful tools for those coming to the subject for the first time.

Stephen Butterfill is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Warwick, UK