The First School in the Materialist Family ：

BEHAVIORISM 行为主义

“Methodological” behaviorism: Psychology is the science of behavior. Psychology is not the science of mind.

“Psychological” behaviorism: Behavior can be described and explained without making ultimate reference to mental events or to internal psychological processes. The sources of behavior are external (in the environment), not internal (in the mind, in the head).

“Analytical” behaviorism: In the course of theory development in psychology, if, somehow, mental terms or concepts are deployed in describing or explaining behavior, then either (a) these terms or concepts should be eliminated and replaced by behavioral terms or (b) they can and should be translated or paraphrased into behavioral concepts.

Methodological behaviorism is a normative theory about the scientific conduct of psychology.

What psychology should like to be?

It claims that psychology should concern itself with the behavior of organisms (human and nonhuman animals). Psychology should not concern itself with mental states or events or with constructing internal information processing accounts of behavior. According to methodological behaviorism, reference to mental states, such as an animal's beliefs or desires, adds nothing to what psychology can and should understand about the sources of behavior. Mental states are private entities which, given the necessary publicity of science, do not form proper objects of empirical study. Methodological behaviorism is a dominant theme in the writings of John Watson (1878–1958).

John Broadus Watson (约翰•华生， January 9, 1878 – September 25, 1958) was an American psychologist who established the psychological school of behaviorism. Watson promoted a change in psychology through his address, Psychology as the Behaviorist Views it, which was given at Columbia University in 1913. Through his behaviorist approach, Watson conducted research on animal behavior, child rearing, and advertising..

Psychological behaviorism is a research program within psychology.

How can psychology be done?

It purports to explain human and animal behavior in terms of external physical stimuli, responses, learning histories, and (for certain types of behavior) reinforcements.

Key Words: 物理刺激， 反应， 学习历史， 特定的行为强化 Psychological behaviorism is present in the work of

Ivan Pavlov (1849–1936), Edward Thorndike (1874–1949), as well as Watson. Its fullest and most influential expression is B. F. Skinner's work on schedules of reinforcement.

伊万·彼得罗维奇·巴甫洛夫 Ivan Petrovich Pavlov (Russian:

Ива́н Петро́вич Па́влов; September 26 [O.S. September 14] 1849 – February 27, 1936) was a famous Russian psychologist and physiologist. Inspired when the progressive ideas which D. I. Pisarev, the most eminent of the Russian literary critics of the 1860s and I. M. Sechenov, the father of Russian physiology, were spreading, Pavlov abandoned his religious career and decided to devote his life to science. In 1870 he enrolled in the physics and mathematics faculty at the University of Saint Petersburg to take the course in natural science.[1] Ivan Pavlov devoted his life to the study of physiology and sciences; making several remarkable discoveries and ideas that were passed on from generation to generation

爱德华·李·桑代克 Edward Lee "Ted" Thorndike

(August 31, 1874 – August 9, 1949) was an American psychologist who spent nearly his entire career at Teachers College, Columbia University. His work on animal behavior and the learning process led to the theory of connectionism and helped lay the scientific foundation for modern educational psychology. He also worked on solving industrial problems, such as employee exams and testing. He was a member of the board of the Psychological Corporation, and served as president of the American Psychological Association in 1912.[

Burrhus Frederic Skinner ( 斯 金纳 ， March 20, 1904 – August 18, 1990) was an American behaviorist, author, inventor, social philosopher and poet. He was the Edgar Pierce Professor of Psychology at Harvard University from 1958 until his retirement in 1974.

WHAT DOES MENTALITY MEAN?

Analytical or logical behaviorism is a theory within philosophy about the meaning or semantics ( 语 义 学 ) of mental terms or concepts. It says that the very idea of a mental state or condition is the idea of a behavioral disposition or family of behavioral tendencies, evident in how a person behaves in one situation rather than another. When we attribute a belief, for example, to someone, we are not saying that he or she is in a particular internal state or condition. Instead, we are characterizing the person in terms of what he or she might do in particular situations or environmental interactions. Analytical behaviorism may be found in the work of Gilbert Ryle (1900–76) and the later work of Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–51) (if perhaps not without controversy in interpretation, in Wittgenstein's case).

Gilbert Ryle (19 August 1900, Brighton – 6 October 1976, Oxford), was a British philosopher, a representative of the generation of British ordinary language philosophers that shared Wittgenstein's approach to philosophical problems,[1] and is principally known for his critique of Cartesian dualism, for which he coined the phrase "the ghost in the machine". Some of his ideas in the philosophy of mind have been referred to as "behaviourist." Ryle's best known book is The Concept of Mind (1949), in which he writes that the "general trend of this book will undoubtedly, and harmlessly, be stigmatised as 'behaviourist'."

Born: 26-Apr-1889Birthplace: Vienna, AustriaDied: 29-Apr-1951Location of death: Cambridge, EnglandCause of death: Cancer - ProstateRemains: Buried, St. Giles's Churchyard, Huntingdon Road, Cambridge, England

Gender: MaleReligion: Roman CatholicRace or Ethnicity: WhiteSexual orientation: GayOccupation: Philosopher

Nationality: AustriaExecutive summary: Destroyed metaphysics

Military service: Austrian Army (WWI, captured in Italy)

Masayuki Saeki( 佐伯雅行 , played by 渡边谦 ) is a brilliant and successful advertising company executive. However he is soon shocked to realize that he is failing to meet up to his perfect standards. He starts inexplicably forgetting things - appointments, details of his work, and his knowledge of the layout of Tokyo.

The poor guy is disabled by Alzheimer's Disease finally!

The definition job should be done in terms of the agent’s behaviors!

Masayuki Saeki is mentally ill if and only if it is observed that he cannot do this or that---or in other words, a list of behavior-conditions cannot be satisfied;

Masayuki Saeki is psychologically competent if and only if it is observed that he can do this or that! that---or in other words, a list of behavior-conditions not be satisfied!

Well, there should be a scientific way to make the list complete.

In this sense, a suspected patient needs to appeal to an expert.

LET’S WATCH THE MOVIE NOW !! When the handkerchief is covered by a

piece of paper, the patient will forget its existence!

We can infer his psychological incompetence by observing his behaviors!

The philosophical behaviorism cannot meet this challenge:

Its definition of a certain type of mental activity in terms of behaviors will presuppose a further type of mental activity, and hence violating the behaviorist criteria.

For instance, to define a patient's incompetence in a given task in terms of his behaviors would presuppose that he is not pretending to be disabled! And his will to recall something is part of his mental activities!

The indeterminacy of translation is a thesis propounded by 20th century American analytic philosopher W. V. Quine. The classic statement of this thesis can be found in his 1960 book Word and Object, which gathered together and refined much of Quine's previous work on subjects other than formal logic and set theory. The indeterminacy of translation is also discussed at length in his Ontological Relativity (1968).

In these books, Quine considers the methods available to a field linguist attempting to translate a hitherto unknown language. He notes that there are always different ways one might break a sentence into words, and different ways to distribute functions among words. Any hypothesis of translation could be defended only by appeal to context, by determining what other sentences a native would utter. But the same indeterminacy will appear there: any hypothesis can be defended if one adopts enough compensatory hypotheses about other parts of the language.

Psychological behaviorism has its enemies now:

Neuroscience! AI-Oriented Cognitive Science!

Chomsky (1959) charged that behaviorist models of language learning cannot explain various facts about language acquisition.

By the age of four or five (normal) children have an almost limitless capacity to understand and produce sentences which they have never heard before. Chomsky also argued that it seems just not to be true that language learning depends on the application of reinforcement. A child does not, as an English speaker in the presence of a house, utter “house” repeatedly in the presence of reinforcing elders. Language as such seems to be learned without, in a sense, being explicitly taught or taught in detail, and behaviorism doesn't offer an account of how this could be so.

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/behaviorism/