preprints.org > biology and life sciences > behavioral sciences > doi: 10.20944/preprints202302.0131.v4 (registering DOI)

Preprint Review Version 4 This version is not peer-reviewed

Version 1 : Received: 6 February 2023 / Approved: 7 February 2023 / Online: 7 February 2023 (11:24:52 CET)
Version 2 : Received: 5 May 2023 / Approved: 5 May 2023 / Online: 5 May 2023 (11:54:13 CEST)
Version 3 : Received: 22 September 2024 / Approved: 23 September 2024 / Online: 24 September 2024 (04:59:48 CEST)
Version 4 : Received: 6 November 2024 / Approved: 7 November 2024 / Online: 7 November 2024 (08:51:26 CET)

Is there a qualitative difference between apes’ and human ‘ability to estimate others’ mental states’, a.k.a. ‘Theory-of-Mind’? After opting for the idea that expectations are empty profiles that recognize a particular content when it arrives, I apply the same description to ‘vicarious expectations’ –very probably present in apes. Thus, (empty) vicarious expectations and one’s own (full) contents are distinguished without need of meta-representation. Then, I propose: First, vicarious expectations are enough to support apes’ Theory-of-Mind (including ‘spontaneous altruism’). Second, since vicarious expectations require a profile previously built in the subject that activates them, this subject cannot activate any vicarious expectation of mental states that are intrinsically impossible for him. Third, your mental states that think of me as a distal individual are intrinsically impossible states for me, and therefore, to estimate them, I must estimate your mental contents. This ability (the original nucleus of human Theory-of-Mind) is essential in human lifestyle. It is involved in unpleasant and pleasant self-conscious emotions, which respectively contribute to ‘social order’ and to cultural innovations. More basically, it makes possible the human (prelinguistic or linguistic) communication, since it originally made possible the understanding of others’ mental states as states that are addressed to me, and that are therefore impossible for me.

human lifestyle; language evolution; mentalese; self-conscious emotions; Theory-of-Mind; vicarious expectations

Biology and Life Sciences, Behavioral Sciences

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