Advocacy and the function of folk psychology

Why do we care about getting mental state attributions right? A common answer is that folk psychology is a proto‐scientific theory that allows us to predict and explain the behavior of physical systems. I argue that this position is inconsistent with one of the central practices in which attribution of desire occurs: to advocate for our interests and for the interests of others. I explain how such advocating speech works, and in which contexts such uses of “wants” are the default. I use these observations to argue that there may be an irreducible normative function to folk psychology.