A REASSESSMENT OF PRAGMATISM IN BEHAVIOR ANALYSIS: II. THE WORLD VIEWS OF BEHAVIOR ANALYSIS

Résumé 0

"César Antonio Alves da Rocha, Universidade Federal de São Carlos, Monalisa de Fátima Frei - tas Carneiro Leão, Universidade Federal do Pará, and Carolina Laurenti, Universidade Estadual de Maringá. This essay has benefited greatly from the insightful suggestions by two anonymous reviewers, as well as the useful comments and corrections made by the Editor for English Language Submissions. Send correspondence about this manuscript to alvesdarocha@gmail.com. Part of this essay derives from researches supported by the São Paulo State Research Foundation (FAPESP), through a doc - toral fellowship granted to the first author [FAPESP, Grant 2014/02981-1] and by the Coordina - tion for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES), through a doctoral fellowship granted to the second author. converge. Nevertheless, there is another aspect in which such philosophies could find common ground: their world views. On one hand, several authors have de - fended that the world view of behavior analysis is that of contextualism, which is precisely a pragmatic world view. On the other hand, some have argued that mech - anism fits better as the world view of behavior analysis. A third point is raised by others: behavior analysis would be “a-ontological”, that is, free from metaphysical commitments. This essay examines arguments surrounding this debate, and evaluate how they relate to pragmatism. As a conclusion, we note that pragmatism not only does not interdict metaphysical claims, such as ontological ones, but also that it en - compasses a particular world view. To recognize this aspect of pragmatic philosophy is important for a thorough understanding of its relations with behavior analysis."