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In this article we propose an extended approach in terms of Cognitive Pragmatics (CP) to the explanation of the development of the higher cognitive processes. Therefore, we explain in terms of CP how linguistic and pre-linguistic social practices shape the mind. CP, as we understand it here, presents a broader transdisciplinary position covering developmental psychology, primatology, comparative psychology, cultural psychology, anthropology #0# 66 Daniel Żuromski, Anita Pacholik-Żuromska, Adam Fedyniuk and philosophy. We present an argumentation for the thesis that CP provides an explanation to the origins and developmental mechanisms of some of the higher mental functions unique to humans. Thus, we want to extend the notion of CP beyond its standard definition by emphasizing the transformative component of communicative acts. In our approach, CP first and foremost examines the cognitive mechanisms underlying social pre-linguistic and linguistic communication. Secondly, it explores how this communication reorganizes and transforms cognitive abilities and processes. We would like to extend the tasks of CP as well, because its goal is not only to describe cognitive processes that enable communication, but also to explain the social mechanisms of the transformation of mind and cognition. We provide an example of the said mechanisms of the development of higher cognitive functions through the account of metacognition.

The discovery of mirror neurons and the characterization of their response properties is certainly an important achievement in neurophysiology and cognitive neuroscience. The reference to the role of mirror neurons in ‘reading’ the intentions of other creatures and in the learning process fulfils an explanatory function in understanding many cognitive phenomena beginning from imitating, towards understanding, and finishing with complex social interactions. The focus of this paper is to review selected approaches to the role of mirror neurons in mental activity as understanding, and to conclude with some possible implications for researches on mirror neurons for philosophical theories of understanding.