Symulacja mentalna jako podstawa kontaktu poznawczego z fikcyjnymi narracjami

The aim of the article is to employ results from philosophy of mind and cognitive sciences in order to answer certain questions from the field of philosophy of art. What is specifically at issue is the problem of the cognitive underpinnings of subject’s relation to narrative fictions presented in novels and movies. A proposal according to which this relation is mediated by mental simulation is critically assessed. The author discusses two theses that are based on this general simulationist idea, namely theses that (1) a person engaged in reading a novel or watching a movie simulates mental states of the protagonists (empathizes with them); (2) the simulation mechanism underlies the ability to imagine fictional events presented in narratives.