Newsgroups: bit.listserv.csg-l
Date:         Wed, 30 Sep 1992 12:42:00 GMT
From:         Hortideas Publishing <0004972767@MCIMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Postulates

From Greg Williams (920930)

>Dennis Delprato (920925)

>RE: Postulates

>So, what follows are some fundamentals of Skinner's approach to
>matters psychological.  I realize that they may not be particularly
>interesting or useful without accompanying text, but I'll bet they
>still function as a disturbance.

>                               I. Purpose of Science:
>             The primary purpose of science is prediction and control.

>                                  II. Methodology:
>         The methodology is functional analysis which relates environmental
>              independent variables to behavioral dependent variables.

>                                 III. Determinism:
>                       Behavior is determined; it is lawful.

>                          IV. Locus of Behavioral Control:
>              The causes of behavior are localized in the environment.

>                             V. Consequential Causality:
>           Selection by consequences is the primary causal mode by which
>                 environment determines outcomes in living systems.

                                  VI. Materialism:
>              Dualism is false.  The only world is a physical world.

>                          VII. Behavior as Subject Matter:
>              The subject matter of psychological science is behavior
>                                 and behavior only.

>                               VIII. A. Reeducations:
>        The subject matter of psychology is reducible (at least to biology).

>                             VIII. B. Nonreductionism:
>         Behavior cannot be completely explained in terms of biology or any
>                          other "lower-level" discipline.

>                  IX. Organism as the Locus of Biological Change:
>        It is the organism that changes through evolutional and environmental
>                     histories, and the changes are biological.

>             X. Classification of Behavior into Respondent and Operant:
>            There are two major classes of behavior, or more completely,
>                   functional relations: respondent and operant.

>                     XI. Stimulus Control of Operant Behavior:
>          Operant behavior can be brought under the control of antecedent
>        stimuli, and description of operant behavior usually requires three
>             elementary terms and their functional interrelationships.

>                  XII. On The Generality of Behavioral Principles:
>       The full complexities of human activity--including language, thinking,
>       consciousness, and science--are behavior to which all the above apply.

>Bill Powers (920925.2000)

>That's a really grown-up job. It's the sort of analysis we need done
>on PCT. Why not give it a whack yourself?

Since Dennis has not (so far) given it a whack, the following is a tentative
presentation of PCT postulates in the same format in which Dennis presented
Skinner's postulates. I'll bet they function as a disturbance.

I. Purpose of Science:
The primary purpose of science is explanation.

II. Methodology:
The methodology is modeling which relates co-determining environmental
variables and organismic variables.

III. Determinism:
Behavior (controlling for an outcome) and action (output) are determined;
they are lawful. The path of reorganization is not determined; it is not
lawful.

IV. Locus of Behavioral Control:
The causes of behavior (controlling for outcomes) are localized in the
organism. The causes of action (output) are found in the organism and the
environment.

V. Consequential Causality:
Negative-feedback control is the primary mode by which organisms determine
outcomes.

VI. Materialism:
Dualism is false. The only world is a modeled "physical world."

VII. Behavior as Subject Matter:
The subject matter of psychological science is behavior (whether observed
"externally" or hypothesized "internally") and behavior only.

VIII. A. Reeducations:
The phenomena of psychology are explanable in terms of physiological phenomena
AND particular observations at the level of psychological phenomena.

VIII. B. Nonreductionism:
Behavior cannot be completely explained in terms of biology or any other
"lower-level" discipline.

IX. Organism as the Locus of Biological Change:
It is the organism that changes through evolutional and environmental
histories, and the changes are biological.

X. Classification of Behavior:
There is one major class of behavior: control of outcomes.

XI. Antecedent Influence on Behavior (Control of Outcomes):
Control of outcomes depends on, but is not fully determined by, antecedent
environmental events within an organism's lifetime and in evolution, and
explanation of such behavior requires modeling of organismic reference
signals.

XII. On The Generality of Behavioral Principles:
The full complexities of human activity -- including language, thinking,
consciousness, and science -- are behavior to which all the above apply.

Now, how about somebody else trying to put the postulates of mainstream
cognitive scientists in the same format?

Best,

Greg
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