Similar to emergentism, and lends itself
to a MATERIALIST view of the
relationship/nature of the mind and
body
Generally, they seek to reduce mental properties
to special types of physical properties, and are thus
at odds with cartesian dualism
example - in order to establish whether or not X is angry, we
have to look at X's behaviour, and have no direct access to his
actual 'feelings', thus we can only be sure of his behaviour
Logical Behaviourism
Wittgenstein 1889-1951
Did not necessarrily disagree with cartesian
dualism - saw its problem as a misuse of language
believed that thoughts are expressions of
behaviour, not the other way around
Wittgenstein's Beetle - everyone has a small box in
which they keep a beetle, but noone is allowed to
look in anyone elses box but their own, over time
communities come to use the term 'beetle' for the
contents of everyone's boxes, despite having no
proof that all beetles are identical
Gilbert Ryle 1900-1976
A 'soft' behaviourist, notably
addressed the problem of
category mmistakes, as
demonstrated by the beetle
illustration.
argues that it is wrong to
appropriate 'mind' with some kind
of substance, as it can only
mean, by our experience 'what it
is like to be me'
Hempel 1905-1997
Psychological Behaviourism
a view about the methods and aims of psychology -
psychology aims to predict and control behaviour in
animals in terms of thier respoonses to stimuli and
patterns of behaviour
'recognises no dividing line between man and brute'
Problems
the more private the experience, the
more difficult it is to explain in
behaviourist terms
problem if different reactions - if one stimulus produces different
reactions in receptors, although one can refer to differences in
perosonality and upbringing, the very fact that reactions cannot
be predicted presents the possibility that a private cartesian self
is not determining physical responses?
the potential veriety of responses to stimuli makes it almost impossible to come
up with a theory of a one to one relationship between response and stimulus