January 26, 2011

Types of behaviourism

Crude behaviourism, mental phenomena are pieces of behaviour (e.g. Watson's identification of thinking with sub‑vocal movements of the larynx).

Methodological behaviourism, a (scientific) research strategy in psychology, making no reference to non‑observable items like experience, or other mental terms, but only to observable phenomena such as behaviour, conduct, response etc.

Philosophical, or logical, behaviourism, talk of mental states is a kind of short‑hand for tally about actual or potential behaviour; there are no 'ghostly' inner states, anger, for example, does not consist in some private inner state but in actualised 'angry' behaviour or in a disposition to behave angrily which is inhibited by certain specifiable conditions. Sentences about mental events can be translated without any loss into sentences about actual or potential behaviour.

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