This paper presents a unified, ToM-centric framework for understanding the distinctive cognitive trajectory of the human lineage, grounded in active inference (Friston), evolutionary breakthroughs in intelligence (Bennett), scale-free multi-level agency (Levin), and cultural-evolutionary mechanisms (Henrich).
We propose that recursive Theory of Mind (ToM)—the nested representation of mental states—serves as the core organizing principle. Successive applications of the same inferential mechanisms (boundary formation via Markov blankets, free-energy minimization, recursive prediction) generate scalable agency across phylogenetic, ontogenetic, and socio-cultural levels.
Key novelties include:
A single coherent model that integrates (1) phylogenetic emergence of full recursive ToM, (2) its extension to non-present/non-biological agents via Theory of Virtual Mind (ToVM), providing a mechanistic explanation for animism, personification, and the cognitive foundations of religious/mythological cognition,
An account of adult cognitive-affective development as ongoing, conscious refinement of recursive inference across four differentiated domains of agentivity (corporeal, mental, relational, instrumental), enabling self-directed adaptation in complex social niches through philosophy, spirituality, and contemplative practices,
The parallel elaboration of affect from basic drives → social emotions → virtual/spiritual emotions tied to long-horizon predictions involving inferred intentionality of abstract agents,
The scaling to collective intelligences (CIs) and the introduction of ToCI: higher-order collective reflexivity, encompassing both a CI’s meta-representational self-model and its recursive modeling of other CIs’ mindedness/agency.
Rather than claiming universality or superiority, the framework descriptively illuminates one observed path of nested cognitive complexification in Homo sapiens. It offers a novel integrative lens for linking individual recursive ToM, religious cognition, adult psychological development, spiritual experience, and higher-order collective intelligence within a common active-inference architecture.