The origins of understanding self and other: James Mark Baldwin’s theory

Recent theories on the development of social understanding often proceed on the assumption that the child analogizes from her own mind to that of others. We argue that this approach fails to account for the mind of the other. James Mark Baldwin’s theory is offered as an alternative approach to the development of social understanding. Baldwin’s theory emphasizes the gradual differentiation of self and other and roots this process in embodied activity within a social context. We argue that Baldwin’s account of social development provides a stronger starting point for conceptualizing the infant’s discovery of other, self, and mind in general than the analogical assumption. We further suggest some amendments to Baldwin theory that ground the self–other differentiation in practical, collaborative interactions between self and other.