In political science, theology, and economics, behaviour is usually regarded as the material from which one infers attitudes, intentions, needs, and so on. For more than twenty five hundred years close attention has been paid to mental life, but only recently has any effort been made to study human behaviour as something more than a mere by-product. The conditions of which behaviour is a function are also neglected. The mental explanation brings curiosity to an end. We see the effect in casual discourse. If we ask someone, Why did you go to the theatre? and he says, Because I felt like going, we are apt to take his reply. as a kind of explanation. It would be much more to the point to know what has happened when he has gone to the theatre in the past, what he heard or read about the play he went to see, and what other things in his past or present environments might have induced him to go (as opposed to doing something else), but we accept I felt like going as a sort of summary of all this and are not likely to ask for details. Skinner, BF&D
Posted on: Sun, 25 Jan 2015 00:57:32 +0000
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