Suppose we try to explain the public behavior of a person by describing how they represent, conceptualize or think about their situation. Suppose they conceive or think of their situation in a certain way, not as bare, as filled with items without attributes, but as things, as trees, as people, as walruses, walls, and wallets. Suppose, we also say, a person never merely interacts with their environment; but rather interacts with their environment as they perceive, see, or represent it. So, for example, thinking of something as a wallet, a person reaches for it. Perceiving something as a walrus, they back away from it. Classifying something as a wall, they don't bump into it. So understood, behavior is endogenously produced movement, viz. behavior that has its causal origin within the person who thinks of or represents their situation in a certain way.
斯金纳会反对上述说法。他反对不是因为他相信眼见为实,也不是相信内在的心理活动不会发生。他反对是因为他相信行为必须用无须进一步解释的事物来解释。
一个人的外部行为不能通过其内部活动来解释——内部活动是无法解释的(因为解释是一个外部的行为)。
“异议!”斯金纳写道,“我不是说内部状态不存在,而是说它们在功能分析中不具有相关性。”
对斯金纳来说,“不相关”意味着解释的循环或者倒退。
斯金纳认为,既然心理活动是一种行为形式(尽管是内在的),那么解释行为的唯一非循环、非倒退的方式就是诉诸非行为的事物。这种非行为的事物是环境刺激和生物体与环境的相互作用,以及来自环境的强化。
因此,行为主义吸引人的第三个原因是,它试图避免对行为的解释陷入无穷倒退。它的目的是避免用一种行为(隐蔽的)来解释另一种行为(显性的)——在某种意义上,这种做法始终无法解释行为。
值得指出的是,斯金纳关于解释的观点,以及所谓的参照内在过程进行解释导致的循环的观点,都是极端的,在科学上具有争议的。
许多自称行为主义者的人,像是格思里、托尔曼和赫尔,或是基林(Killeen)和雷斯克拉(Robert Rescorla)这样在传统框架内部工作的学者,都对斯金纳上述说法不以为然。
此外,斯金纳自己并不总是清楚他对内部状态的厌恶。斯金纳对于心理内在性的解释性参考的蔑视态度,部分来源于他的信念,即如果心理学的语言被允许提及内部处理,这在某种程度上就是为了允许谈论非物质的心理实体、用自由意志反抗因果的行为者、身体内的小人儿(Homunculi[1])——斯金纳认为所有这些都与科学的世界观不相容。
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