What Is the Theory of Theoretical Behaviorism

This commentary on Staddon’s text examines three senses of “theory” that should be considered in his theoretical behaviorism. First, the theory as “ism” appears in the word “behaviorism” with the function of marking off the limits of investigation and explanation of psychological phenomena (which, in this case, would be a behavioral one). Second, science as a theory takes theoretical behaviorism away from both naive empiricism (which considers itself atheoretical) and transcendent metaphysics (which is an abuse of theory); that brings Staddon’s proposal close to the desiderata of modern epistemology. Third, considering the cognitive status of theories, theoretical behaviorism seems to affiliate with instrumentalism when it justifies the expansion of theory by explanatory effectiveness. However, instrumentalism conflicts with modern epistemology, which tends toward realism. Thus, although instrumentalism legitimizes the theory expansion, it creates difficulties to support the proposition that theoretical behaviorism is not a “scientific mentalism.”