Mind, Brain and Behaviour

Discussions of B.F. Skinner and J.R. Searle
1. Auflage 2026
ISBN: 978-1-041-43255-5
Verlag: Taylor & Francis

Buch, Englisch, 158 Seiten, Format (B × H): 138 mm x 216 mm

Reihe: Psychology Revivals

Originally published in 1988, this important study is a philosophical critique of the basic tenets of behaviourism in academic psychology as developed by B. F. Skinner and J. R. Searle’s conception of mind and its relation to the brain. Prof. Dilman sees their work in its proper context, as symptomatic of a much wider trend in human thought but criticises them on their individual merits. He connects Skinner’s behaviourism with that of the early Greek sophis, Gorgias, who sought to change people’s minds whilst bypassing their understanding. Dilman also claims that Searle’s scientific materialism is in reality a metaphysical position which cannot be supported by reference to the physical sciences. But the book is a discussion of their particular views and argues that they are open to serious philosophical objections. Today it can be read in its historical context.

Zielgruppe

Adult education, General, and Postgraduate

Autoren/Hrsg.

Dilman, Ilham

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Psychologie Psychologie / Allgemeines & Theorie Geschichte der Psychologie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Preface.  Part I: B. F. Skinner: a Modern Gorgias 1. Operant Conditioning 2. Skinner’s View of the Language of Psychology 3. Skinner’s Reductive: Analyses: the Mind and its States 4. Skinner’s Reductive Analyses: Final Causes 5. Skinner’s Reductive Analyses: the Self, Self-Control, the Will, Decision and Action 6. Freedom of the Will 7. Skinner’s Picture of Human Life and Human Nature 8. Skinner’s Conception of ‘the Good Life’ 9. Punishment and Behavioural Therapy 10. Science and Human Behaviour  Part II: John Searle: a Materialistic Dualist 11. The Mind and the Body 12. Thinking and the Brain 13. Freedom and Determinism. Bibliography. Index.

Über Autor(innen)

Ilham Dilman was Professor Emeritus and Honorary Fellow of the Department of Psychology at the University of Wales, Swansea until his death in 2003. He was the author of numerous works of epistemology, philosophical psychology, aesthetics and existentialism, including Free Will: An Historical and Philosophical Introduction and The Self, the Soul and the Psychology of Good and Evil which are also published by Routledge.