Philosophy Unit 3 Behaviourism

Pro - Behaviourism

Although analytical behaviourism is not very plausible, there are three other behaviourist thesis that have a life in them yet:

Behaviour-as-necessary

Necessarily, anything that has no physical behavioural dispositions of a certain kind and complexity doesn't have a mental life

Behaviour-as-sufficient

Necessarily, anything that has physical behavioural dispositions of a certain kind and complexity has a mental life.

Supervenient behaviourism

In the jargon, psychological facts "supervene" on physical behavioural dispositions: If any two possible creatures x and y differs with respect to types of mental states, then they differ with respect to types of behavioural dispositions.

Anti - Behaviourism

• One's behaviour may not tally with one's mental states, so how can they be one and the same thing? The behaviourist may respond in terms of subjunctive conditions: X would Y if Z.
• However, such accounts contain ineliminable mentalistic terminology such as belief and desire, so the behaviouristic analysis is not exhaustive; we are left with an irreducible mentalistic component.
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