Abstract

The philosophy of science can provide fruitful contributions to other areas of philosophy. In this paper, I argue that the application of work on the nature of theories helps to resolve a long-standing dispute on the philosophy of mind over mindreading. The Theory Theory and the Simulation Theory are two competing accounts of how it is that we explain and predict the actions and mental states of others. I discuss each view as well as some of their weaknesses. I suggest that the difficulties each faces depend in part on the notion of theory supposed to be at issue. After introducing an alternative notion of theory, a model-based view, I try to show that the problems of both views are diminished and that a synthesis results.