Analytical Behaviourism Exam Questions

?
  • Created by: Elena.S
  • Created on: 07-05-17 12:41

Define analytical behaviourism (3)

  • philosophical position holding that discussions of the mind are actually discussions of behaviour; talk of mental states is simply talk of how people behave
  • linked to psychological behaviourism; studying observable behaviour which can be empirically tested
1 of 5

The Ghost in the Machine (5)

  • attack on Descartes' dualism
  • Ryle: category mistake in thinking there is a soul/mind which doesn't occupy the physical world
  • category mistake: when someone puts something into the wrong logical category i.e there is no mind, it is rather just the body doing it (the body capable of this is the mind)
2 of 5

Ryle's analytical behaviourism (5)

  • Ryle: the mind is nothing more than behaviour
  • dispositions (what a person is likely to do a certain thing in a certain circumstance) can tell us everything we need to know about the mind; these are hypothetical statements
  • Ryle: entire idea of mind causing things to happen in body is category mistake + it is an error to talk about the mind as if it is the kind of thing which causes things to happen; we can talk of mental states in terms of dispositions but they tell us what will/won't happen in certain circumstances but by themselves they don't do anything
3 of 5

Strengths (5)

1) problem of other minds
Ryle: understanding of minds is talking of testable hypotheses and observable behaviours so also long as we can observe behaviour, we can believe they have a mind ("ghost in the machine")

2) causal interaction
There is no mind substance and entire idea of mind interacting with body is no more than a catergory mistake

4 of 5

Issues of analytical behaviourism (12)

1) defining mental states satisfactorily

  • does defining mental states in terms of behaviour result in circularity? Is it possible to define a behaviour without eventually referring to another mental state?
    2) multiple realisability
  • same kind of mental state doesn't necessarily entail same kind of behavior (can be realised in different ways)
    3) mental states without accompanying behaviour
    Putnam: super Spartans who don't show behaviour of pain; possible world in which mental states cannot be described in terms of behavior or dispositions so statements about mental states cannot always be analytically reduced to statements about behaviour
    4) asymmetry between self-knowledge and knowledge of other's mental states
  • following Ryle's theory, we should know as much about other people as we do ourselves but we don't i.e "do they like me?"
    RESPONSE
  • Ryle: introspection as form of behaviour (thinking can be done out loud i.e expressing concerns; whether thinking takes place in mind or public is philosophically irrelevant; we know more about ourselves bc we hear ourselves say those things we would never say, introspection is merely hearing ourselves speak
5 of 5

Comments

No comments have yet been made

Similar Philosophy resources:

See all Philosophy resources »See all Philosophy of the Mind resources »