Choice Group Seminar by Henry Schiller (University of Sheffield): ‘Advocacy and the Function of Folk Psychology’

Abstract: We often use terms like ‘wants’ to advocate for our (and others’) interests. I explain how such advocating speech works, and in which contexts such uses of ‘wants’ are the default (and in which they are not). Drawing on linguistic evidence, I argue that advocacy is the default in cases of collective decision making, or group deliberation, when the subject of the ascription is a member of the group (or is proxied by one). Our uses of ‘wants’ are purely descriptive when the subject of an ascription is part of an ‘outgroup’. I use these observations to argue that there is an irreducible normative function to folk psychology.

Henry Schiller is a Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellow at the University of Sheffield.

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