PRETENCE, PRETENDING AND METAREPRESENTING

I assess the claim that metarepresentation is a key notion in understa nding the nature and development of our capacity to engage in pretence . I argue that the metarepresentational programme is unhelpful in expl aining how pretence operates and, in particular, how agents distinguis h pretence from belief. I sketch an alternative approach to the relati ons between pretending and believing. This depends on a distinction be tween pretending and pretence, and upon the claim that pretence stands to pretending as truth stands to belief.