Are Children "Intuitive Theists?" Teleological Reasoning about Purpose in Nature
                        
Deborah Kelemen
Department of Psychology
Boston University

Separate bodies of research suggest that young children have a broad tendency 
to reason about natural phenomena in terms of a purpose and an orientation 
towards intention-based accounts of natural entity origins. This presentation 
explores these results further by drawing them together with recent findings in 
cognitive developmental research to address the following question: Rather than 
being "artificialists" in Piagetian terms, are children "intuitive theists" - 
disposed to view natural phenomena as resulting from non-human design? 
Specifically, I will review recent research from my own and other labs on 
preschool children's agency concepts and imaginary companions, their reasoning 
about biology and their "design stance" understanding of artifacts to suggest 
that, by around 5 years of age, the "intuitive theist" description may have 
explanatory value and practical relevance to our understanding of how a 
scientific understanding of nature develops.