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- Title
FIRST INSTANCES IN PHYLOGENIC AND ONTOGENIC SELECTION AS CAPTURED BY THE VERBAL BEHAVIOR OF SCIENTISTS AND PHILOSOPHERS OF SCIENCE.
- Authors
Stahlman, W. David; Catania, A. Charles
- Abstract
Selectionist sciences such as evolutionary biology and behavior analysis depend on variations. Variations must emerge before environments can act upon them. Yet if first instances in ontogeny are not products of ontogenic selection they are prerequisites for, but not instances of, selection. They count as behavior but not as operant behavior. When Smith (2019) examines how Skinner treats these issues, he relies on snapshots of Skinner's writings over decades, during which Skinner's approach evolved from one anchored in physics as a model science to one increasingly aligned with biology. Skinner's early treatments of the problems of ontogeny and phylogeny differed from his later formulations. Accounts of scientific behavior based only on verbal samples from an evolving scientific corpus typically omit both their antecedents in the laboratory and the research consequences that follow. Furthermore, behavior analytic research has a long history of exploring the sources of novel behavior. Thus, we need not defer to cognitivist views regarding the Problem of the First Instance.
- Subjects
SKINNER, B. F. (Burrhus Frederic), 1904-1990; VERBAL behavior; OPERANT behavior; BEHAVIORAL assessment; BEHAVIORAL research; PHILOSOPHERS
- Publication
Behavior & Philosophy, 2020, Vol 48, p25
- ISSN
1053-8348
- Publication type
Article