Behaviorism

Mind–Body Issue

A discussion of the relationship between the mind and the body is fundamental to how one views the world. Dualism is a metaphysical view that views the human as composed of a physical and mental condition. The use of the term mindsuggests mental processes, thought, and consciousness. The term body suggests the physical aspects of the nervous system in general and the activities of the brain. The “mind–body problem” is how these two concepts interact. Whether they are separate or the same thing predisposes how one approaches issues such as consciousness, God, reality, or speech and language.

Descartes’s dualist interactionism viewed the mind and body functions separately but with influence over one another. The question, then, is if the body is governed by the laws of nature, how does this interaction happen? Cartesian dualism holds that there is an interaction between the mental and physical states. Furthermore, it suggests that the human is born with preexisting concepts.

In contrast to these two views of dualism is that of monism, which also has two basic types: materialism and subjective idealism. Monism holds that mind and body are the same things. Whereas subjective idealism views all physical objects and events as mental objects, properties, or events, materialism proposes that a human is a complicated physiological organism and that mental processes are physical processes in the central nervous system. Behaviorism is rooted in the philosophy of materialistic monism; measurement of observable physical activities is its mainstay.

Historical Influences

John Locke, a British philosopher, proposed that at birth, the mind is a blank slate or tabula rasa. He held that humans are born without innate ideas or concepts and that knowledge is determined by sensory experience. His philosophy was followed by a series of important philosophers [Page 265]that further advanced this idea. From his work, critiques and advances by George Berkeley, John Stuart Mill, and especially David Hume, gave strong philosophical standing to the foundations of behaviorism under the label of empiricism.

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