Direct Perception In Social Cognition

“Theory of mind” is the ability to attribute one’s state of mind to themselves orothers. Since it was invented in the1980s，many and more psychologists put alot of energy into it. Especially in the field of developmental psychology, theoryof mind has been a new focus after Piaget’s genetic epistemology andera-cognition theory. In the social cognition domain, it is also a classical study.The point that our routine life is based on a theory gets much agreement, but itis not to say that theory of mind is perfect. In recent years, the conflictsbetween different models of theory of mind set many restrictions for thedevelopment of it. What’s worse, the queries come from direct perception isanother serious challenge faced by theory of mind. The direct perception ideagrew from Husserl’s phenomenology in the middle of the20th century, MaxSheler took the external manifestation of emotion as an example to discoursethis idea. Then some scholars began to explain this thought from apsychological view, the most famous representative is E.J Gibson. Afterentering the21st century，with the further expand in the field of psychology，many scholars begin to shift their sights back to direct perception, bringing it tosocial cognition, and find out a new research idea for some puzzles which can’tbe explained by theory of mind. The direct perception approach elaborated by Shaun Gallagher not only inherits the previous studies but also isrepresentative in similar studies. Gallagher discussed what direct perception isin detail, direct perception is not going against indirect perception, but it wasopposite to what is not belonging to perception. What’s more, Gallagher makesa difference between clever-perception and not-so-clever perception. Besideshe suggests clever-perception lays the foundation of our life. Since professorGallagher is a phenomenologist， his ideology has a profoundphenomenological basis，and he goes further than predecessors on the pointof inter-subjectivity and embodied perception. Besides he suggests that directperception can gather evidence from mirror neurons and developmentalpsychology, and he also gives mirror neurons a non-simulation explanation.From the above, this paper will first give a brief review of the history of theoryof mind, and then summarize the defects of it. Second, elaborate the conceptand the ideological foundation behind it. For a comprehensive explanation ofGallagher’s theory, an exploration to mirror neurons and developmentpsychology is necessary. Further development of direct perception can lie on adeep compromise of direct perception, social cognition and theory of mind.