From folk psychology to naive psychology

The notion of folk-psychology as a primitive speculative theory of the mental is called into question. There is cause to believe that folk-psychology has more in common with a naive physics than with early speculative physical theorising. The distinction between these is elaborated. The conclusion drawn is that commonsense ascription of psychological content, though not a suitable finishing point for cognitive science, should still provide a more reliable source of data than some contemporary theorists are willing to admit.