Knowledge-first mentalizing: concept-based or merely state-based?

Abstract There is a growing body of evidence that the mentalizing abilities of humans and other primates have a “knowledge-first” character, according to which the ability to appreciate others’ knowledge is more basic than the ability to appreciate others’ beliefs. This paper proposes an overlooked way of understanding the knowledge-first character of mentalizing and develops a particular model along those lines. I motivate the model by comparing it to alternatives and explain how, if the model is correct, then the step some have made, from the evidence for knowledge-first mentalizing to more theoretical claims about the relative basicness of knowledge and belief (or the concepts thereof), is not motivated.