Empathy and Theory of Mind and body in evolution.

Three mutually exclusive theoretical explanations have been proposed to describe howTheory of Mind processes work, namely by imitation, by simulation or by representation.This paper claims that all three theories are correct and that the realization of empathyin discourse is a good source of evidence for that. Instead of being three exclusivetheories these are three compatible mechanisms, which reflect different stages ofcognitive evolution. Furthermore, the somatic and emotive bias of cognition, thecomplexity of Theory of Mind processes and the fundamental role empathy plays ininteraction altogether point to a new metaphor of communication, namelycommunication as a caress