The double empathy problem as a dialogic sense-making style asymmetry

The occurrence of social comprehension difficulties when people living with autism, henceforth: autistics, 2 interact with neurotypicals motivates the reemergence of key questions about the mind and its interaction with other minds; what are minds and how do they relate to the world and others?The disruption of smooth social interaction brings forth the question of how is a mind able to socially interact and this question motivates one to tacitly provide a definition of what a mind is.This is visible in Simon-Baron Cohen's exposition of the theory of mind theory, henceforth: ToM, in his book Mindblindness.In this book, Baron Cohen states that autistics have at least a degree of mindblindess and that mindreading 3 is the means through which the mind relates to other minds. 4 His tacit descriptions of ontological properties of the mind, henceforth: ontological descriptions or assertions, are utterly different from those provided by enactivists and by those who contribute to the 20 th century tradition of phenomenology, henceforth: phenomenologists. 5 The tension between the ontological descriptions of ToM Theory and those provided by enactivists and phenomenologists has led to a thriving battle ground.This article's key aim is to provide descriptions that facilitate enactivist or phenomenological analyses that engage with the double empathy problem 1 Radu Nedescu has received a Master degree from KU Leuven, Institute of Philosophy.His research focuses on phenomenology and autism. 2 Quirk, "Results and Analysis of the Autistic Not Weird 2022 Autism Survey -Autistic Not Weird"; Chapman and Bovel, "Neurodiversity, Advocacy, Anti-Therapy." 3 Baron Cohen's version of ToM theory is the key cognitive model used for explaining social interaction difficulties in autism. 4[1][2][3][4][5][21][22][26][27][28][29][30] Gallagher, "Understanding Interpersonal Problems in Autism."120 RADU NEDESCU hypothesis. T bring its aim to fruition, I follow three steps.Firstly, I define the approaches and concepts I use: phenomenology, enactivism, and the double empathy problem.Secondly, I argue in favor of using phenomenology and enactivism for explaining social difficulties in autism by presenting two, at least prima facie, disadvantages of Baron Cohen's articulation of ToM theory; one disadvantage stems from the ethical implications of his ontological assertions and the other stems from his ontological assertions.Thirdly, I describe autisticneurotypical social interactions in a non-pathologizing manner by performing an enactivist analysis of the double-empathy problem surrounding autisticneurotypical social interactions.