Flowering Palo Verde, tree of Sonoran Desert.
Radical Behaviorism:
Los Horcones' basic philosophy
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Flowering Palo Verde, tree of Sonoran Desert. |
This is why we ask you to read the following text without prejudice. Please do not allow your prior concepts about "behaviorism" to interfere with learning more about this philosophy.
Radical behaviorism is the basic philosophy of Los Horcones.
First, to say that radical behaviorism is our basic philosophy does not mean that we do not allow or respect other philosophies or ways of thinking. People in Los Horcones can have diverse ways of conceiving human beings and society. We say radical behaviorism is our basic philosophy, not the only one.
Radical behaviorism is the philosophy of the natural science of behavior (behavior analysis or behaviorism).
The main statements of a behaviorist philosohy are:
1. Human behavior is a natural phenomenon (natural event) and thus it can be scientifically studied. Like every natural phenomenon, human behavior is subject to natural laws. Human behavior is not a fortuitous or erratic phenomena. Our behavior has reasons, causes. We behave as we do for certain reasons.*
* I am writing this for certain reasons, you are reading it for certain reasons. I believe in behaviorism for certain reasons. People misunderstand behaviorism for certain reasons. Everything we do, we do for certain reasons.
2. Radical behaviorism, defines behavior as all the actions* of an organism, not only those which can be observed by others. Thus it also considers as behavior those which are observable to the organism itself, like thinking, feeling and imagining.
* By the term "action" we do not refer to corporal movement. Behavior is not a biological event is a behavioral event.
3. Radical behaviorism does not deny the existence of feelings, emotions and other psychological phenomena (cognitive and affective).
4. To behaviorism, thoughts and feelings are not self-originated, they are produced as we interact with our environment*. Something occurs in the environment that makes us feel or think something.
* Environment is everything that affects our behavior, not only what surround us, but all the physical, chemical biological and social events which affect our behavior. An environmental event can be the behavior of other people and our own behavior.
5. Radical behaviorism is humanist. It is interested in the well being of all people, in the realization of the potential of each individual (self-realization). It views human beings as concrete and unique persons and not as robots or abstract groups. Radical behaviorism is not an antihumanistic or mechanistic philosophy.
6. All human behavior is shaped and maintained as a product of our interactions with our environment.
The fact that our behavior is shaped and maintained by our interactions with our environment does not imply that we are "merely a product of our circumstances."* It does not imply we are passive before the influence of our environment. When we interact with our environment we change our environment.
* This is one of the most frequent misunderstandings about radical behaviorism.
7. The relationship between behavior and environment is reciprocal (bi-directional). The behavior affects the environment and the environment affects the behavior.
8. By implementing behaviorist principles we can become better people and build a more appropriate society for human beings.
As we observe and better understand how the relationship with our environment is shaping and maintaining our behaviors, we will be better able to make changes in our environment. This means be able to arrange the environmental conditions (social and non-social) so that they affect us differently. In fact, our survival depends on our skills in changing the total environment in our favor.
What does it mean to say that Los Horcones is a behaviorist community?
- It means that us, the members, believe that people learn to behave as we do as a result of our interactions with the total environment in which we live. We learn to speak the language we speak, to think the way we think, and to believe what we believe, because of our interactions with our environment (physical, chemical, biological and social). We are not born being the way we are,we learn it.
- It means that we the members believe that if we have learned to behave in a certain way, we can learn to behave differently. If we have learned to compete, we can also learn to cooperate. If we have learned to treat each other in a non-egalitarian manner, we can also learn to treat each other in an egalitarian manner. If we learned to be aggressive, we can also learn to solve problems in non-violent or coersive ways.
- It also means that we the members believe that in order to learn new behaviors, it is necessary to change the environment. Consequently, if we want cooperation we need to design an environment that promotes or reinforces cooperative rather than competitive behaviors. A Walden Two community, like Los Horcones precisely tries to design such environment.
- Los Horcones is a behaviorist community because its members believe that if the consequences or results of our communitarian behavior are shape and maintain such behavior. Thus, if an intentional community is effectively designed to shape and maintain communitarian behavior, then it will endure. We do not learn without a reason. We cannot expect someone to behave in a particular way if he/she does not have reasons for behaving in such a way. The reasons for our behavior are in the environment in which we live, not inside our brain, mind or heart.
A community can only survive if communitarian behaviors are encouraged or reinforced.
- We believe that psychology -when understood and practiced as the natural science of behavior- can definitely contribute to the design of intentional communities where its members could live satisfactorily, creatively and productively.
- It means that Los Horcones' members are very committed to a natural science of behavior. We believe that only by applying this science we can design a better community. We believe that it is impossible to achieve a better world by implementing traditional political, philosophical and religious ideas. (This does not mean that members as individuals do not believe on religion.)
The science of behavior or better said, its appropriate application, can enormously contribute to the shaping of an ideal society and to the solution of social problems. When we say that a great part of the world's problems can be solved by science, we are, of course, referring to the appropriate application of science, this is its humanist application.
- It means that we strongly believe that the appropriate application of a science of behavior can help to build a better world for all humans. But it is necessary to realize that this science of behavior is not a cold and mechanistic science which serves to control or manipulate people, as some critics wrongly suggest. See Misunderstandings about Behavior Analysis and Behaviorism.
What Los Horcones is not, as a behavioristic community
- We are not followers of Skinner's ideas, nor are we guided or inspired by his novel Walden Two.
- We are not promoting the despotic control and manipulation of human behavior.
- We are not saying that what is only "scientific" is good, appropriate or valid.
- We are not saying that only behavior that is observable for others exists, but that feeling and thinking also exist. Thinking and feeling are concrete behaviors although they are observable only by an individual.
- We are not a cold and distant community formed by people without feelings, individuals who act like robots and reinforce each other with tokens, pints, candy or money.
- We are not a community that says that freedom and dignity are fiction.
Behaviorism is not a religion.
Some of our critics say that behaviorism is like a religion for Los Horcones. They miss the point. Facts are not beliefs. Religions are based on beliefs.
The science of behavior informs us about how we learn to behave the way we do and how we can change those behaviors. It also informs us about which behaviors are appropriate for the wellbeing of the individual and for the survival of the culture.
The science of behavior has made possible that we know the behavioral principles (those who govern behavior). To know this principles is not the same as "believe" in them.
We apply behavioral principles to improve our lifestyle. We try to live according to this principles. We have a behaviorist view of behavior and try to act or live accordingly. If religion is understood as a lifestyle, then we are as religious as anyone else. If by religion is understood to apply the science to benefit human species and other species, as well as applying it without harming the environment, then we are religious.
Our behavior, as well as that of our critics', is a product of our interaction with our environment.
If you want to know more about the most frequent misunderstandings concerning behaviorism go to Misunderstandings about Radical Behaviorism
We recommend that you read B.F.Skinner's book: "About Behaviorism." In this book Skinner clarified the most common misunderstandings about behaviorism and analysis of behavior. See Bibliography
We are writing a book about personal and social implications of radical behaviorism. If you are interested in it, please contact us.Your questions will help us write a better book.
We accept donations.
Last up-date: January 2003
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