Radical Behaviourism Of B.F. Skinner: A Philosophical Perspective

Behaviorusm represents an attempt to apply the methods of natural sciences to human behaviour. Behaviourists insist that whatever humans do is part of natural causal nexus, hence human behaviour and conditions of which it is a function are describable in physicalist language. Classical Behaviourism calls for ignoring the issue of consciousness. Radical Behaviourism rejects it much more emphatically and seeks to explain purposive and voluntary behaviour also in naturalistic terms on the basis of operant conditioning. Present paper aims at a critical exposition of the Radical behaviourism from a philosophical perspective.