I wouldn’t quite say it’s a typical mind fallacy, because I am not assuming that everyone is like me. I’m just also not assuming that everyone is different from me, and using heuristics to support my inference that it’s probably not too uncommon, such as reports by authors of their characters surprising them. Another small factor in my inference is the fact that I don’t know how I’d write good fiction without making mental models that qualified as people, though admittedly I have very high standards with respect to characterization in fiction.
(I am aware that I am not consistent about which phrase I use to describe just how common it is for models to qualify as people. This is because I don’t actually know how common it is, I only have inferences based on the evidence I already gave to go on.)
The rest of your post is interesting and I think I agree with it, though we’ve digressed from the original subject on that part.
I wouldn’t quite say it’s a typical mind fallacy, because I am not assuming that everyone is like me. I’m just also not assuming that everyone is different from me, and using heuristics to support my inference that it’s probably not too uncommon, such as reports by authors of their characters surprising them. Another small factor in my inference is the fact that I don’t know how I’d write good fiction without making mental models that qualified as people, though admittedly I have very high standards with respect to characterization in fiction.
(I am aware that I am not consistent about which phrase I use to describe just how common it is for models to qualify as people. This is because I don’t actually know how common it is, I only have inferences based on the evidence I already gave to go on.)
The rest of your post is interesting and I think I agree with it, though we’ve digressed from the original subject on that part.
Thanks for you replies.