Behaviorism and Metaphysics

MacKinnon, Flora I.

doi:10.2307/2014255

Cited by 2 publications

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“…Whether we say that everything is spiritual (Berkeley, 1710/1962), that everything is God (Spinoza, 1677/1930), or even that everything is water (Malone et al, 2003) is irrelevant. “For behaviorism, as for Berkleian idealism there is no separation between one group of facts, called the mental, and another group of facts, called physical or material” (MacKinnon, 1928, p. 356). A person made out of spiritual substance cannot step out of his or her own body, behavioral stream, or world to confirm that everything is spiritual.…”

Section: The Functions Of Ontological Statementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pragmatism and a-ontologicalism in a science of behavior.

Krägeloh¹

2006

The Behavior Analyst Today

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Behavior analysis is intimately linked to radical behaviorism, the philosophy of the science of behavior. Ontological discussions in the latter are easily generalized to the former, in which case behavior analysis is not judged by its scientific merit, but evaluated on the basis of philosophical matters. According to pragmatism, the meaning of discourse is to be understood in terms of its effect on behavior, and ontological assumptions are essentially prescriptions on how behavior analysis is to be conducted. Dissemination of behavior analysis would be greatly facilitated if such prescriptions are framed in a form that is as a-ontological as possible, so that fruitless discussions can be avoided that distract from the main purpose of behavior analysis-prediction and control of behavior.

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Section: The Functions Of Ontological Statementsmentioning

confidence: 99%