Open AccessPhysicalism, Behaviorism and Incompleteness
Author(s) -
Tao Li
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
asian social science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1911-2025
pISSN - 1911-2017
DOI - 10.5539/ass.v7n5p203
Subject(s) - physicalism , introspection , behaviorism , epistemology , objectivity (philosophy) , psychology , philosophy , metaphysics
The content of this paper contains four parts. (1) First, physicalism gives the enlightenments to behaviorism: mind-body identity, objectivity like physics and completeness of reduction. (2) Secondly, there are difficulties which behaviorist could not overcome—both the reduction of the theory and the terms are unreliable, and the strict distinction between introspective method and inter-subjective method is also untenable. (3) Thirdly, It has inevitable incompleteness in one theory no matter what it claims due to the limitations of human cognition. (4) Finally, the author concludes that we should treat various theories in a "both this and that" but "either this or that" way. Therefore, we should admit the contribution of behaviorism and its model philosophy—physicalism, although they has failed in seeking for completeness