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Contractualist moral cognition needs a legalese-of-thought
Kartik Chandra1, Max Kleiman-Weiner2
1Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA, USA kach@mit.edu.
The Behavioral and Brain Sciences
|June 24, 2026
Summary
Contracts are complex cognitive representations. This commentary proposes probabilistic programs as a formal theory for understanding how the mind represents contracts, drawing parallels with real-world contract structures.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Science
- Legal Theory
- Computational Linguistics
Background:
- Understanding the cognitive basis of legal concepts like contracts is crucial.
- Existing theories may not fully capture the complexity of contract representation in the mind.
Purpose of the Study:
- To discuss the necessity of a formal theory for mental contract representation.
- To propose probabilistic programs as a viable model for this representation.
Main Methods:
- Conceptual analysis and theoretical proposal.
- Drawing analogies between real-world contract structures and computational models.
Main Results:
- Identified a need for a formal theory of mental contract representation.
- Suggested probabilistic programs as a promising candidate for this formal theory.
Conclusions:
- Probabilistic programs offer a novel framework for understanding how humans mentally represent contracts.
- Further research is needed to explore the implications of this theoretical approach.
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