Behavior and Its Causes: Philosophical Foundations of Operant Psychology

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The rise of cognitive science in the 1960s was widely heralded as a scientific revolution - an interpretation that implied the decline and eventual death of behavioral psychology. Although many forms of behavioral psychology did indeed disappear, there was a striking exception: the program of operant psychology founded by B.F. Skinner. This program actually grew at a rapid pace during the ‘cognitive revolution’ and shows no signs of fading away. What, then, is its place within psychology, and in particular, what is its relationship with cognitive psychology? This book attempts to answer that question. Distinguishing between operant psychology and the philosophy of radical behaviorism, it concludes that even though radical behaviorism may have been a failure, the operant program of research has been a success. Furthermore, operant psychology and cognitive psychology complement one another, each having its own domain within which it contributes something valuable to, but beyond the reach of, the other.