EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF PRAGMATISM AND AMERICAN PHILOSOPHY

Abstract. Traditionally pragmatists have been favorably disposed to improving our under-standing of agency and ethics through the use of empirical research. In the last two dec-ades simulation theory has been championed in certain cognitive science circles as a way of explaining how we attribute mental states and predict human behavior. Drawing on re-search in psychology and neuroscience, Alvin I. Goldman and Robert M. Gordon have not only used simulation theory to discuss how we “mindread”, but have suggested that the theory has implications for ethics. The limitations of simulation theory for “mindread-ing ” and ethics are addressed in this article from an interactionist or neo-Meadian prag-matic perspective. To demonstrate the limitations of simulation theory scenes from the television show Mad Men are used as “thought-experiments”. Not long ago I began to read in earnest about the simulation and theory theory or folk psychology debate in cognitive science. I was led to this debate in researching contempo-rary approaches to agency in social psychology. Quite coincidently I found myself watch-ing the television series Mad Men. For those of you unfamiliar with the series, the title re-fers to the ad men primarily on Madison Avenue in the 1960’s. How fortunate, I thought, t