Re: death of the mind.

From: dan michaels (feedbackdroids_at_yahoo.com)
Date: 07/28/04 

Date: 27 Jul 2004 20:24:46 -0700

lesterDELzick@worldnet.att.net (Lester Zick) wrote in message news:<41069c1e.46852009@netnews.att.net>...

> >It isn't that they've studied it and don't *agree*, rather, it
> >invariably seems to me to be the case that they just don't get the
> >important facts right. Conversely, those who *do* seem to be able to
> >give an accurate account of what is the case (whether they *agree* or
> >not) don't seem to say the things about "the mind" etc that the former
> >group do.
>
> If behaviorists deny the mind and mental effects, what other accurate
> accounts of what is the case are relevant? You may not appreciate
> having the significance of behaviorist science interpreted without
> your approval. But apart from denying the mind, you have nothing to
> contribute to the subject of imaginative ideas regarding the mind. The
> science part of what behaviorists contribute to behavioral science
> doesn't show anything except that you can and do train animal behavior
> effectively whether or not there are minds and mental effects.
>
> Regards - Lester

Interestingly, Adler keeps weighing in on this discussion. He taught
psych back in the 1920s, so he was a little familiar with the current
events of the time .... [pg 49 of a book I lost the title of] ...

"... I can still wholeheartedly subscribe to the opening section,
which expressed my adverse judgements about experiemntal psychology
and especially about JB Watson's brand of behaviorism, a doctrine
which has become a little more sophisticated, but not much sounder, in
the hands of BF Skinner. Watson, it should be said to his credit, did
not pretend to be a philosopher as well as a scientist, and certainly
did not issue moral and political edicts on the basis of his
laboratory findings ..."

Relevant Pages

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