Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

P hilosophy of mind A type of behaviorism, proposed by Hempel and others, in which all sentences containing sensation terms or psychological terms can be translated or reformulated into sentences containing only physicalistic terms. Hence, psychological terms do not refer to mental objects, events, or states. This theory extensively employs meaning analysis and contextual definition, and its goal is to deny the existence of mental substance. The major problem it faces is its difficulty in analyzing some psychological sentences in behavioral terms. “Analytical behaviourism is the theory that all sentences using psychological or mentalistic terms are transformable by analysis of what they mean into sentences using no psychological terms, but containing only terms used to describe bodily behaviour and bodily dispositions to behave.” Cornman, Materialism and Sensations ... log in or subscribe to read full text