Here’s another nice piece from JEAB on determinism.
In About Behaviorism (1974), B. F. Skinner addresses how the discussion of self control may appear contrary to a behavioristic formulation suggesting some lack of determination. Or does the behaviorist’s use of ordinary language, or for that matter any of his own behavior, violate his behavioristic account? Had Skinner not decided to write that book? Skinner states the issue in another form:
If human behavior is as fully determined as the behaviorist says it is, why does he bother to write a book? Does he believe that anything matters? To answer that question we should have to go into the history of the behaviorist. Nothing he says about human behavior seriously changes the effect of that history. His research has not altered his concern for his fellow men or his belief in the relevance of a science or technology of behavior. Similar questions might as well be asked of the author of a book on respiration: “If that is respiration, why do you go on breathing?”
I remain unsatisfied with the conclusion that “Nothing he says about human behavior seriously changes the effect of that history.” Certainly the act of writing a book (doing the research) has little impact, but a long exposure to researching behavior and determinism DOES change the effect on that history because it becomes the history.
When that happens, then what?
Does anything matter? Let’s take that question on its own, outside of the context of any particular researcher or philosopher. If determinism is true, then does any investigation matter?
The trouble here is that what is determined and what we mean by “matter” is by no means clear.
What is determined is hard to pinpoint because behavior is part of an open, dynamical system. There are so many things pushing and pulling on a person at any given time, all of those things are determined. They come together in ways that make it damn near impossible to tell what is being determined, in fact it’s so complex we often just chalk it up to choice and free will. I like to think about the weather when trying understanding unpredictable determinism. We can all agree the weather is completely determined by the air, water, land, jet streams, sunlight, etc. etc. and yet we like to say “it has a mind of its own” because what it actually does is hard to predict. By determined we mean that there is no free will or random chance, everything is connected.
What “matters” in a behaviorist philosophy is always relative to the historical values of the person questioning what matters. There is no universal matter. The behaviorist investigates and writes down their investigations because their history (environment, genes) determined it so. This is what Skinner implies with the line “Similar questions might as well be asked of the author of a book on respiration: “If that is respiration, why do you go on breathing?”” You can’t really stop breathing even if you understand it all. You can’t stop believing what you believe and acting according to those beliefs simply because you grok behaviorism.
All in all, nothing matters. Nothing matters in some universal way. It might matter to you and that is determined by your history.
Social Mode 