Rachlin's “teleological behaviorism” is a
dubious melange. Of Aristotle's four basic “causes”
– formal, efficient, material, and final – the scientists
and philosophers of the modern era expelled the last, or teleology,
from science. Adaptionist evolutionary biologists now sometimes
sanction talk of the function or purpose of organisms' structures
and behavioral repertoires as a first step because they believe
evolution through natural selection makes natural organisms look
as if they are purposively designed. But, as Aristotle
himself insisted, humans are as much artificial as natural and so
teleology is much less appropriate. To the degree that Rachlin's
view makes sense it seems to amount to Daniel Dennett's
intentional stance or the folk psychology talk of our everyday
narrations of ourselves and others.