Science and Philosophy of Behavior: Selected Papers - Softcover

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William M. Baum is Professor Emeritus at the University of New Hampshire and a Research Associate at the University of California, Davis. He has published over one hundred journal articles and has over twenty years’ teaching experience at universities including Harvard and the University of New Hampshire. His research interests include choice, cultural evolution, behavioral processes, and the philosophy of behavior.

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A compelling reimagination of the science and philosophy of behavior

Science and Philosophy of Behavior: Selected Papers is an expansive collection of contributed readings that set out an insightful and compelling new paradigm for thinking about behavior. Except for a paper including a quantitative analysis of avoidance, the collection generally avoids quantitative methods in favor of work focusing on creating a philosophical and theoretical framework for the natural science of behavior.

Organized into three parts, the author explains the flow-like characteristics of behavior and how it is linked to evolution. He also describes a pure form of behaviorism that corrects significant flaws in B.F. Skinner’s seminal work. Finally, the selected works link behaviorism to anthropology.

Science and Philosophy of Behavior: Selected Papers explores:

• Fulsome descriptions of the molar nature of behavior and strong arguments for the position that the molecular view is misguided
• A reimagination of the concept of reinforcement, including new ways of thinking about allocation, induction, and contingency
• The links between behavior analysis and Darwinian evolutionary processes

An eye-opening and essential critique of behavior theory and philosophy, this book is a controversial and illuminating reorganization of its subject that spans a half-century of transformational literature in the field.