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Aping Newtonian physics but ignoring brute facts will not transform Skinnerian psychology into genuine science or useful technology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 March 2005

John J Furedy
John J Furedy*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M5S 3G3http://www.psych.utoronto.ca/~furedy
*
Furedy@psych.utoronto.ca
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Abstract:

The proposal to add the behavioral momentum metaphor to Skinnerian psychology and the use of other borrowed physical explanatory concepts such as velocity and inertial mass has only superficial value. The basic problem is that, in contrast to Newtonian physics, the “laws” do not apply to a significant proportion of the phenomena to be explained, and these evidential discrepancies are ignored, rather than being used to modify the scientific explanations and improve technological applications that are based on those explanations.

Type
Continuing Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 27 , Issue 5 , October 2004 , pp. 693 - 694
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2004

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Footnotes

Commentary onJohn A. Nevin & Randolph C. Grace (2000). Behavioral momentum and the Law of Effect. BBS 23(1):73–130.