ONTOLOGY OF PSYCHOLOGY

Upon reading, while a graduate student in philosophy, Science and Human Behavior by B. F. Skinner’s, I within a few pages understood that behaviorism provided the bridge between brain states and human behavior--a bridge without the very problematic purposive analysis.  Skinner shows how applying the simple conditioning units, one can describe complex behavior.  It was like the discovery of Chapman’s Homer;[i] I now saw human behavior with a new depth, and for assorted reasons behaviorism fit into the scientific understand of the nature of things.  The combination of these two was and is most compelling.  Six months were required for me to cast of the old and use this analytic tool with proficiency.   Mysteries and half explanations vanished for me. 

Consider our lofty conception of freedom as it applies to the explanation of evil & good:  The common conception of behavior is that a person is able to rise above his genetic inheritance (unless severely psychotic) and environmental conditioning to choose what he does, and thus to choose to do evil and good acts.  Under the common conception we are not brothers to the cat, for we can choose.   Most people believe in a soul, and to them it is the medium for volitions, that is, for choosing in a way that is fundamentally different than the way a cat chooses.  However there are two problems with this conception of freedom of will, one of explaining what a contra causal choice and to do so without creating a capricious inner self.[ii]  Second, if all we are is a physical being, then how is it possible that our brain acts contra causally?   Neither of these has been satisfactorily answered.  With behaviorisms the two questions do not arise.  Thus we do not choose to do good and evil.  We are complex brothers of the cat—after all our brains are essentially similar.

The cat by playing with a bird until death, he is not choosing capricious, or choosing to do evil.  Hitler didn’t capriciously choose to do evil, he had certain beliefs about the Jews, about Germany and its destiny, and about god, and his rational process came to the conclusion that it was good to exterminate the Jews—for similar reasons we exterminate misquotes:  in pursuit of the greater good.  But deliberation adds only complexity to behavior; it doesn’t make it contra causal.  We are brothers of the cat, and just as it is inappropriate to evil to the cat, so too to is it wrong to ascribe the same to Hitler.  Harm is harm, not evil. 

The concept of evil is the product of a spiritual belief concerning human behavior. The cat because of an instinct and a variety of accidental conditions entails that he play with the bird.  Accidental conditions would be hunger, the feeling secure in the play area, lack of other cats in the area which might want a share of the feast, and past engaging in such behavior without unfortunate consequences.  As brothers of the cat, we too engage in acts based on instinctual proclivities, environmental conditions, and past consequences (history of conditioning). 

     It is objected that we think—and cats don’t.   B.F. Skinner pointed out that thinking is silent whispers, and in his book Analysis of Verbal Behavior, he shows how conditioning accounts for the development of verbal behavior, and how this behavior can be analyzed.  We have a layer of complexity, we can give verbal responses when questioned about the hunting of ducks, and we have silent whispers concerning this behavior.  Our verbal behavior, when appropriate, uses logical analysis, but that does not create a contra causal mind that decides to blast ducks today.  What we think of is like what we say and do:  they are caused by a complex process within the brain based on past conditioning, neurotransmitters, and genes.  We are no freer than the android and the cat in selecting actions.    The brain is an organic computer.

          Words, thoughts, and hand movement are like in kind; they occur and we observe them.  Like words, thoughts just pop into the mind.  We observe them just like we observe the hand rising for a glass of water.  Do this thought experiment, imagine that you are from another solar system and you come to earth.  Your first observation is that of three Yanamono natives of the Brazilian rainforest hunting a tapir.  Then you observe a jaguar also hunt a tapir.  You would conclude that the humans make complex sounds and its affect upon behavior, and thus are capable of greater complexity of behavior.  You would also conclude that the humans are essentially similar to the Jaguar.   

      It is objected that a listing of conditions in which I choose to dine out based upon my past history doesn’t allow a determination of what I will do, only a prediction.  This objection reveals the extraordinary complexity involved in a causal analysis of behavior.  The complexity of analysis does not entail the impossibility of analysis.  “Oliver Lodge one asserted that ‘though an astronomer can calculate the orbit of a planet or comet or even a meteor…, neither a biologist nor any scientific man can calculate the orbit of a common fly’.”[iii]  Behaviorism is an analysis of behavior which does not require the preeminence of the mind in the analysis of behavior.

      The mind is just a way we talk about the silent whispers.  There is no soul wherein the mind resides.  The essay on vision illusion explains why it appears to us that there is a soul in the machine:[iv] a thinking mind, for which the eyes are the receptor and the brain, is the screen.  A similar illusion exists between silent whispers and the thinking mind.  The recognition of these illusions is fundamental to understanding the tenacity of the soul belief and of cognitive psychology.

     Behaviorism provides insight not just into learning to speaking, learning to see (see link above), but into all aspects of behavior.  Their classical example of slot machines being in kind like the variable reinforcement of a pigeon in a Skinner box is but one of many simple yet profound examples.  Behaviorism answer why we don’t do what our training in logic, in morals, and pragmatic self-interest dictate.  The short answer is that such training which strengthens those aspects of behavior having to do with rational guidance was insufficient to overcome the assortment of reinforcers which have resulted in the imprudent behavior.  It is not a weakness of the will, not a lack of desire to do that which is right, but rather a complex interplay of past conditioning and present reinforcers.  And though these patterns are complex and, given a persons history spanning decades, not sufficiently recorded; there are detailed experimental delineations of various facets of conditioning so as to prove that the various relationships between schedules of reinforcement, of reinforcers and of behavior, that these reveal the underlying processes. 

        Behaviorism had risen in the 60s and 70s to the preeminent analysis of behavior taught in universities, and then gradually declined.  Cognitive psychology now fills the most-taught spot.  This is not because of any fundamental inadequacy uncovered, and in fact cognitive psychologists admit to and use behaviorist techniques; however, they claim the uniqueness of purposive behavior and the need thus for a cognitive analysis in addition to a behavioral analysis.  This shift just so happens to coincide with the resurgence of religious belief with its soul/mind.  Such psychologists thus use a theory of psychology which utilizes their mind presupposition.  Any in so far as they engage in this mind/volition analysis they are in the 19^th century quagmire.  Cognitive psychologists do not accept as adequate and sufficient behaviorism because it denies the existence of mind; viz., and analyzes it as a linguistic fiction, and their results thus suffer. 

Whether or not you believe in a soul and a hereafter, behaviorism opens doors of perception.  One can still believe in mind and thought processes, and also hold that conditioning patterns affect the probability of choices.  The application of behavioral principles shapes behavior.  There is no better way to open this door of reality than to study Ellen P. Reese’s The Analysis of Human Operant Behavior, which appears in a series of modular “self-selection” textbooks on general psychology.  Unfortunately the work is out of print and its seventy-five pages are beyond my resources in time and priorities for setting it upon the web.  Short of this, there are a number of fine introductory textbooks including my former professor’s G. S. Reynolds, A primer of Operant conditioning, for 2 decades a classroom standard, which though out of print is available through Amazon.com.

        If any of you acknowledge me as a sort of intellectual mentor, than please take this recommendation seriously:  for behaviorism is too prudent, rational control of behavior as logic is to becoming a skeptic. 

THE REPLACEMENT OF MIND ANALYSIS WITH BEHAVIORISM AND HOW WE CAN BEHAVE MORE PRUDENTLY

Understanding self-harmful behavior, an insight that makes the good within a better master of capricious conditioning process

       A telling test of a theory of human psychology is how well it accounts for self-harmful behavior.  How is one to analyze the behavior that produces obesity, drug abuse, gambling addiction, religious fanaticism, child abuse, and the many other activities that clearly a rational person could not do.  How can these behavior be analyzed in a substantial way; viz., a way that doesn’t reduce to (1) willed it, (2) liked it, (3) fulfilled a strong drive, and (4) resolved internal conflicts by doing it. The first three accounts are trivial.  We drink because we are thirsty; viz., we do what we will.  (1) To explain obesity in terms of willing adds scant little to our understanding of that behavior.  (2) To eat more calories per year more than one burns because one enjoys/likes eating, again only restates what is assumed.  Our ordinary understanding of excessive eating, religious fanaticism, and gambling addiction is that these are activities which against the background of comforts and discomforts of daily life, they are sufficiently enjoyable so that the person cannot place reasonable limitations upon the behavior.[v]  (3) To say that a person has an exceptional strong drive for sex, for food, for gambling, and for religions is again to say what is implied by the very behavior and thus does not add anything substantive to our understanding, for this explanation is a restatement of the will to do those things.  It follows that a person who behaves in these ways excessively has an excessive drive for those things.[vi]  To say Johnny has an eating problem implies statements about willing, enjoyment, and drive.   Finally, (4), to claim that conflict or stress produce the problem behavior is merely to say that environmental conditions effect the will.  This is not informative because every obese person and every compulsive gambler has stress and conflicts.  Stress is so pervasive and general that reference thereto adds nothing significant to the explanation.  Ordinary explanations are ordinarily empty of insight. 

        Unfortunately most therapist rely heavily upon ordinary concepts in their treatment of behavior, this has produced embarrassing results for the therapist—though only a few specialists were aware of how naked the therapist is.[vii]  In the 19^th century (and before) psychologist developed mind-based explanations of behavior, and like the dog chasing its tail they went in circle for centuries.  It was in response to these empty, verbal approaches that at the beginning of the 20^th century a group of psychologists began working on an experimental foundation for behavior.  Experiencing the scientific revolution, they believed that psychology could benefit from becoming more scientific, a thing not possible with the in vogue mind-based psychology.  Out of this experimental approach, of which Watson and Pavlov were major contributors, behaviorism was developed essentially in its present form through the insights of B.F. Skinner.  These were published in Behavior of Organisms, 1938.  The discrete behavioral units described by operant and respondent (Pavlovian) conditioning go beyond the consciousness to reveal a program running in the background that gives insight as to why Johnny can’t read, Timmy is obese, and Mary follows the horses.  Behaviorists look exclusively to the environment in order to analyze the program running in the background--the fore ground being the verbal thoughts (silent whispers).  Utterances and silent whispers about diet are just another type of behavior associated with Tom’s excessive eating.  Verbal behavior is in the foreground, very accessible, but past history is mostly lost and the effects of complex interactions are difficult to analyze.  The behaviorist approach knocks off the pedestal verbal behavior; it becomes just another piece of behavior, some of which very helpful, some of which very misleading, and much of which is of minor importance. 

        The program running in the background which causes Tom to overeat is the result of a long and very complex pattern of conditioning (at the bottom of this page is the relevant section from my article on diet techniques describing the main reinforcers that have produced Tom’s obesity).   Though Tom’s rational side convinces him of the desirability for him to preserve his health, to have a loving relationship with his wife, to be physically fit, to be physically attractive, and to increase his social acceptance, the program running in the background prevails.  THIS IS THE INSIGHT:  conditioning creates the forces which determine Tom’s behavior as much as a simple training program determines his dog’s behavior when food is the immediate reinforce following standing on his hind legs when signaled to do so.  The principles are essentially the same for the simple and the complex.  Each behavior is a product of conditioning. 

        Parents use conditioning at home to make their children behave, and schools (which they call schooling work upon making the students skilled in rational analysis among other things.  Even after 13 years of public school and the results of good parenting, Tom still hadn’t obtained sufficient insight into behavior and sufficient rational training so as to manipulate the other environmental reinforcers and control his weight.   

Not engaging in the numerous types of grossly imprudent behavior is a result of both training and chance.  Chance is demonstrated by the assortment of behavioral problems common to man and that inheritance is generally irrelevant.  The pattern of reinforcement that creates a gambling problem, can in another environment reinforce sufficient a totally different sort of behavior.  Training is relevant because fat parents reinforce obesity, gamblers gambling, and substance abusers reinforce the like.  Studies done of adopted siblings show that genetics is not involved.  Obesity is much more common because food is a stronger reinforcer than gambling, though both relieve boredom, have social reinforcers, etc.  Training in rational skills reduces the chances of these problems:  of those who obtain a PhD few are obese.[viii] 

Because there is an association with prudent behavior and extensive, quality education, it can be assumed there is a causal relationship—a point that the ancient Greek philosophers emphasized.  Plato began the discuss by raising the question ‘Can virtue be taught?’  And each of the 4 major schools of philosophy answered that extensive education can instill not only important expertise and a love of wisdom.  Held as most important were skills in science, and rational analysis including its application in moral philosophy.  One freed the student from the superstitions and fears of spiritual world; the other gave the student the ability to analyze complex issues of life and also a much greater ability to follow the dictates of reason. Through a long series of observations concerning the enduring pleasures, these philosophers concluded that those who were virtuous were happier than those with few virtues.  To understand ethical foundation for the virtues the student needs considerable analytic skills.  The student of the Greek philosophers will realizes that ataraxia[ix] is the highest of pleasures for it lasts the longest and has the fewest of associated discomfort.  For to maximize Ataraxia the student will learn to be able to be satisfied with modest possessions, to live away from the crowds, and to be honorable in dealings with others.  In the after word are 4 paragraphs from The Love of All Things:  A Foundation for Ethics which develops further this topic.  The Greek answered in the affirmative, yes we can make better citizens by having teachers such as Plato, Aristotle, Zeno of Ellis, and Epicurus. 

       Education affects the program running in the background, and not merely as a result of direct conditioning (similar to the example below relating to food), but also by improving upon and strengthening the logical analysis program.  The ancient world was full of spirits and gods who at time brought terrible afflictions.  The fear was much greater (reading Washington Irving Sleepy Hollow, where the woods becomes a frightful place because of spirits).  To counter act these fears the students learn the scientific explanation of the nature of things.  Diseases, storms, and such were not due to offending the gods are the invocations of a priest, but natural events.  A person skilled in science automatically does not fear the demonic incantations of a priest or neighbor.  Education in science has evaporated the world of spirits and the fears that are associated with such a world.  Likewise the extensive training in logical analysis, science, and ethics will illuminate the moral path to the good life.  And just like science curing superstition, this moral illumination will cure self-harm, and immoral harm to others. 

        There are general three ways of minimizing imprudent behavior.  One by having the spirit of philosophy; two, by altering the environment, principally in ways to provide alternate activities which compete with the imprudent behavior; and three by reducing the reinforcers that support the imprudent behavior.  Knowing which reinforcers are maintaining the imprudent behavior allows one to plot circumstances in which those reinforcer are either missing or reduced. 

         The shift by a therapist from trying to change the silent whispers about the obesity problem—as, e.g., cognitive psychologists do--to one where the focus is on the reinforcers, this accounts for why behavioral techniques work so much—as demonstrated by controlled studies—better than therapies focusing on the mind.  Moreover, by dismissing as an illusion mind created by silent whispers, and focuses on environmental causes, one will gradually begin to see repetitive patterns of conditioning that shape certain types of imprudent behavior.  Spotting these patterns enables the behaviorist to better predict behavior, and in a positive way alter behavior.  With ethics and a love of philosophy, the skill of a behaviorist makes people good parents.  Without these pieces in place, the parent falls within the norm of the common herd.[x]  The mind is a linguistic entity; reinforcement is operational defined, and its effects under various schedules and conditions have been widely measured.   The choice is between endless word filigrees and scientific psychology. 

THREE ESSENTAIL SUBJECTS FOR LIVING THE GOOD LIFE

There is a triad of concepts that can vastly improve the quality of your life.  This was the argument made by the first philosopher, starting in 600 BC with Thales of Mellitus; and this argument is still valid.  They asked the question “What ought one to do in order to live the good life.”  First, it is have the intellectual skill to understand the complex arguments in support of the complex solution to this question.  To this end there are two on illogical arguments.  Moreover, half of the over 300 articles at skeptically.org are didactic, and thus through exercise they improve the analytic process.  Just as mathematic is the queen of science (Gauss), ethics is the queen of social science.  They are much more than a set of homilies such as the Golden Rule and Categorical Imperative, for the development here of utilitarian ethics answers in a progressive way the question of what good is? —a problem that Socrates struggled with.   Utilitarianism doesn’t merely affirm the reader’s existing set of commonly held beliefs about moral behavior, but leads to conclusions that promote the good life as understood by the Greek philosophers.  The third part of this triad concerns doing what is right.  The Greek philosophers started with an education that stressed logic, so that one could be much better than those of the common herd.  Aristotle defined man as a rational animal.  The Greek philosophers provided a path for the rational direction of the animal side of human nature for the sake of living the good life.  Behaviorism builds upon rational control by providing insights that allow one to manipulate the environment so as to go further down the path to the good life.