The historical development of the concepts underpinning what is currently called ‘Theory of Mind’ (ToM) has received little attention. This paper deals with the contribution of James Mark Baldwin (1861—1934) whose work on such concepts was original and profound. Embedding his version of ToM into a coherent developmental theory of human cognition, and suggesting novel methods of observation, Baldwin also proposed new conceptual tools and proto-concepts such as the ‘ejective-self’. Baldwin also wrote on the distinction between the mental and the non-mental, and on play and imitation. His influence on Jean Piaget, another important figure in the development of ToM, is briefly touched upon here, as are possible explanations for Baldwin’s woeful absence from the 20th-century ToM hagiography.
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