Biology Paper

To understand behaviorism - must be seen as a methodological proposal of explaining the behavior of organisms from the lowest to the highest.

Explaining human and nonhuman behavior by reference to scientific laws and the theories expressed of physical states, events, and entities.

Because modern psychology emerged roughly in the mid-19th century.

Information of behaviorism was gathered in its early stages by introspection (looking at your own inner states of being; your own desires, feelings, and intentions) then linking them to the outside observable state.

Introspection is a notoriously unreliable method for gathering information for scientific theories. There are 2 problems:

1) The introspection data is private. It is impossible for someone from the outside to know the inner states of someone else.

Science demands publicly observable events for a community of scientists to confirm or reject empirical hypothesis by designing and testing experiments in an open arena for all other scientists to observe.

2) There is very little access to one’s total mental being (consciousness) since so much of it has been repressed into the unconscious.

1913 - J.D. Watson proposed the only proper object of study in psychology is behavior.

Behavior is publicly observable .

A team of scientists can observe the same phenomenon under investigation. They can then formulate a hypothesis to account for those behaviors. They can then form experiments so they can confirm or reject those hypothesis designed to explain the behavior of organisms.

“the father of behaviorism”

Exclusive attention given to publicly observable behavior.

There will be no discussions on dreams, hopes, desires, feelings, or internal events.

They must be avoided since they don’t offer explanatory value.

Skinner deserves most of the credit.

Behavior is the product of heredity (5%) and environment (95%).

Marx is an economical determinist, Freud is the mental determinist, Skinner/Watson are environmental determinist - all events that occur in nature including those that we single out that are important (human actions) are themselves the inevitable common product or outcome of prior anteceded forces over which the individual has very little control over (determinism).

We know man as an autonomous being (one whose choices are the result of decisions made, on our part, freely). The person is then responsible. If the actions are beneficial then the individual is entitled to credit. If the result of the actions are harmful, then the individual is should be justifiably blamed.

person --> determined choices --> actions --> responsible --> praised or blamed

This is a myth and the autonomous man is an illusion

We are determined, we are not free (foods that we dislike or the extra Y chromosome in criminal males - are we responsible )

If a serial killer was discovered to have an extra Y chromosome, the behaviorist would say is choices really aren’t free and he doesn’t have any control over it and there is nothing to stop or prevent him from doing so. He will act accordingly and we as citizens and judicial advocates will say he is responsible for those actions and he is justifiable to be blamed (autonomous man)

Skinner says this is an illusion. His theme would be “the elimination of the autonomous man”. All human action and events are the inevitable product of a series of prior anteceded forces that the individual has little control over.

Behaviorist’s Manifesto “We can follow the path taken by physics and biology by turning directly to the relation between behavior and the environment and neglecting supposed mediating state of mind” “We can be just like them real scientists if we do things a certain way” An attitude of scientific wannabes; they want to be taken seriously as scientists, which they are not; by changing the focus of our attention from the internal state of mind and events to the behavior which is publicly observable. The analysis will rest upon the thesis determinism. “This escape route that is claiming that we are free is slowly closing as new evidences of predictability of human behavior are discovered. Personal exemption from complete determinism