A Behaviorological Thanatology: Foundations and Implications

Abstract

Foundation principles supporting a behaviorological thanatology are reviewed, including concepts of life, person, death, value, right, ethic, and body/person distinctions. These natural science foundations are contrasted with traditional foundations, and their respective implications are speculatively explored.

Towards understanding the meaning of affectionate verbal behavior; towards creating romantic loving.

“…If Jack is without the appropriate repertoires then they may be difficult to acquire. Even if Jack works hard practicing appropriate behavior, his new behavior may be disfluent and he may feel that he is not true to his "real self": his characteristic, rapid, automatic, effortless, context and stimulus-appropriate behavior (Fraley, 1998;Johnson & Layng, 1996). Also important is "patience" which may be interpreted as persistently responding though reinforcement is absent.…”

“…1] discussion of proprioceptive feedback). The private stimuli produced by often imagining X and privately talking to oneself about X (commonly called thinking) may evoke “I care for X,” provided aspects of X have been or are reinforcing (Fraley, 1998, p. 26; Skinner, 1974, p. 48). It should be noted, however, that “I care for X” can also be evoked by public primary behavior that enhance X's reinforcing functions as, for example, in refilling a car's gas tank.…”

“…Because a person or “self” is not merely a body but is also characterized by certain behavioral patterns (Fraley, 1998; Keller & Schoenfeld, 1950, p. 369), Jill may report “feeling like a new person” or having “a new self” because personally aversive behavior such as muscle tension and pain have diminished or disappeared (also see, Maslow, 1970, p. 185). Because verbal intimacy with Jack eliminated such non-verbal behavior (Cordova & Scott, 2001), she may describe herself as “feeling relaxed with Jack” and “feeling free to talk about anything” with him (Fehr, 1988, Table 2).…”

“…These inductive efforts are called interpretations. The many interpretations presented in Science and Human Behavior (Skinner, 1953) regarding, for example, “the self,” emotions, intelligence, knowledge, and economic control have been followed by interpretations of, for example, language (Skinner, 1957); psychotherapy and depression (Dougher, 1994; Ferster, 1972, 1973; Kohlenberg & Tsai, 1991); grief (Brasted & Callahan, 1984); competition (Schmitt, 1986); memory (Palmer, 1991); vicarious learning (Masia & Chase, 1997); life, personhood, and dying (Fraley, 1998); religion (Gurein, 1998); and intimacy (Cordova & Scott, 2001). Here I interpret love, particularly romantic love.…”

Foundations for a Natural Science of Philosophy

“…In this example, the part of the environment being affected was the behaviorally defined person (Fraley, 1998), that is, Skinner himself, so here the particular technology was the behavioral technology of self-conditioning. The environmental events to be changed by that technology were Skinner (at the microscopic neural structural level) and subsequently his own behavior toward his subject matter.4 That 4Conditioning does not change behavior directly, but has only an indirect effect on behavior.…”