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Précis of Behaviorism: A conceptual reconstruction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 February 2010

G. E. Zuriff
G. E. Zuriff
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Wheaton College. Norton, Mass. 02766
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Abstract

The conceptual framework of behaviorism is reconstructed in a logical scheme rather than along chronological lines. The resulting reconstruction is faithful to the history of behaviorism and yet meets the contemporary challenges arising from cognitive science, psycholinguistics, and philosophy. In this reconstruction, the fundamental premise is that psychology is to be a natural science, and the major corollaries are that psychology is to be objective and empirical. To a great extent, the reconstruction of behaviorism is an elaboration of behaviorist views of what it is for a science to be objective and empirical. The reconstruction examines and evaluates behaviorist positions on observation and the rejection of introspection, the behavioral data language, theory construction, stimulus-response psychology, the organization of behavior, complex processes, agency, and the interpretation of mentalistic language. The resulting reconstruction shows behaviorism to be a pragmatic psychological version of positivism based on a behavioral epistemology.

Keywords

behaviorismcognitivismconditioningepistemologyhistory of scienceintrospectionmindphilosophy of sciencetheory-construction
Type
Target article
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 9 , Issue 4 , December 1986 , pp. 687 - 699
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1986

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