Comment by travjones
10 years ago
"What goes on in the mind" is behavior. It can be studied scientifically but one can run into the "private event" problem. That is, what goes on in the mind is a private event only observable to the subject. In many psychological experiments, what goes on in the mind is inferred from observable behavior. This is problematic.
In behavior analysis all behavior is considered the subject matter, including private events. So the answer to your question is: No, I'm not saying that.
It seems you think that people should only use behavior analysis when talking about the mind.
I wish you luck in persuading people to accept this philosophy. You may have an uphill struggle convincing people that it is comprehensive enough to replace all the other ways humans have thought about their experiences to date.
>"It seems you think that people should only use behavior analysis when talking about the mind."
That's not what I think. See the difficulty in inferring someone else's thoughts? ;)
If we are just theorizing or talking about what the mind is and so on, then this belongs in the realm of philosophy.
Behavior analysis is alive and well on the psychological scene. APA's lifetime achievement award this year went to an applied behavior analyst. If behaving is doing and behavior is the subject matter of behavior analysis, that's pretty comprehensive.
It may not be what you think, but you continue to argue (condescendingly) that behavior analysis is the only valid approach to any topic concerning human behavior. Now you do so by an appeal to authority.
Have you considered the possibility that some philosophy might actually be useful in this domain?
[incidentally: I have nothing against behavioral analysis in itself - just the claim that thinking about what goes on in the mind should be excluded in its favor]
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