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Behaviorism

Behaviorism (also known as 'learning perspective') is a psychological doctrine that holds all things an organism does - thinking, feeling, acting - should be regarded solely as behaviors. This view negates considerations of mind and states of mind, and holds that aberrations of behavior can be controlled simply by reinforced teaching of 'proper' behaviors and aversion therapy applied to aberrant behaviors.

Psychological behaviorism was methodologically applied by Ivan Pavlov and B.F. Skinner, while analytical behaviorism focused on the semantics of meaning for mental terms and concepts. The historical foundation of behaviorism is found in the philosophical movement known as Logical Positivism and its doctrine of "verificationism."

Analytical behaviorism avoids the necessary consideration of mental states as the products of non-physical sustance, such as in substance dualism by denying that such states objectively exist at all.

Web Resources On Behaviorism

Behaviorism from IEP
Behaviorism from SEP
Behaviorism from Wikipedia

Book Resources On Behaviorism

Learning, Motivation, and Cognition: The Functional Behaviorism of Robert C. Bolles by Mark E. Bouton, Michael S. Fanselow, eds.
About Behaviorism by B.F. Skinner
Radical Behaviorism: The Philosophy and the Science by Mecca Chiesa

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