Mindreading Mindshaping

This note is about the concepts of mindreading and mindshaping, which are two different approaches to understanding and influencing the mental states of others. Mindreading refers to the ability to infer the thoughts, feelings, and intentions of others based on their behaviour and expressions. Mindshaping, on the other hand, involves actively shaping the beliefs and desires of others through communication and persuasion.

References

Lurz, Robert W. Mindreading Animals: The Debate over What Animals Know about Other Minds. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2011.

Mameli, Matteo. “Mindreading, Mindshaping, and Evolution.” Biology and Philosophy 16, no. 5 (2001): 595–626. https://doi.org/10/cpckz8.

Zawidzki, Tadeusz, and Rémi Tison, eds. The Routledge Handbook of Mindshaping. New York: Routledge, 2025.

Zawidzki, Tadeusz Wiesław. Mindshaping: A New Framework for Understanding Human Social Cognition. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2013.