Why the Young Child Has Neither a Theory of Mind Nor a Theory of Anything Else

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Abstract
In recent cognitive theorising there have been frequent attempts to represent children, and some other primates, as possessing theories about particular domains of knowledge or experience. The present paper presents a critique of the child-as-theoretician metaphor and points out that too often a suggestive analogy is treated as if it were an exact homology. In particular, it is argued that comparisons between the cognitive development of an individual and the historical development of actual theories are deeply misleading. Although there may be similarities between the cognitive enculturation of a child and the continuing education of an adult, such as a novice scientist, still individual cognitive structures and their development are of a different order from public theories and their development.

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