Behavior Is Abstraction, Not Ostension: Conceptual and Historical Remarks on the Nature of Psychology

Behavior and Philosophy 32 (1):55 - 68 (2004)
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Abstract

In this paper I discuss (1) the nontechnical nature of the term "behavior"; (2) the need to revisit the Aristotelian concept of soul as the prime naturalistic subject matter of psychology; (3) the incompleteness of meaning when behavior is identified with movements or actions; (4) the implication of behavior in episodic and dispositional words and statements including mental terms; (5) that mental concepts are not learned by inner or outer ostension to physical properties of the speaker or of others; and (6) the concept of behavior involves a two-fold abstraction, involving speaking with terms about doing and saying, on the one hand, and speaking about those terms with which we speak, on the other.

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Cognitivismos y conductismos.Sergio Barrera Rodríguez & Gerardo Gabriel Primero - 2020 - Scientia in Verba Magazine 6 (1):17-46.

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