<feedbackdroids at yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1143818658.126451.40440 at u72g2000cwu.googlegroups.com...
>> Glen M. Sizemore wrote:
>> <feedbackdroids at yahoo.com> wrote in message
>> news:1143755256.942084.120790 at e56g2000cwe.googlegroups.com...>> >
>> >> That is, we respond to the world, and our physiology mediates that
>> >> function.
>> >>
>> >>
>> >
>> > As I said .... if(darkening), then(move flagellum)
>>>> Oh - is that what the protozoan's protozounculus says?
>>>>> Oh wow. You can't even recognize a protozoan behaviorist reflex arc.
The reflex-arc is a physiological notion but, as far as I know, behaviorists
have no problem with it. The behaviorist definition of a reflex involves an
observed correlation between a class of stimuli and a class of responses.
>> You will note I said IF(darkening). not IF(darkening perceived) ...
Not a very good description of a reflex arc - there are no words in there.
>> The former obviously indicates that responsibility inheres to the
> environment, the latter [which, to re-iterate, I did not use] refers
> to action taken by the protozunculus [corrected spelling].
Ah yes - your beef with determinism. I haven't heard a cogent argument from
you on this issue. It may be that there are truly random elements in the
behavior of animals, but that doesn't mean that there is free-will. Does it
Dan? Oh, and I hope you are not implying that the model of behavior for
modern behaviorism is the reflex. In any event, Dan, my original point was
that your description of the hitter's behavior says nothing more than that
his behavior is partly under stimulus control of the pitcher's motion and
that physiology somehow mediates that function. I hope that you weren't also
saying that it is his brain that predicts the trajectory - that is like
saying that lower-level processes are the same as the higher-level processes
of which the lower are supposed to be a reduction. I guess it is possible,
but that would be unprecedented in the history of science. That is sort of a
charitable view. Anyway, though, I look forward to your explanation of why
(human) behavior should not be viewed with the same deterministic attitude
that characterizes the rest of science.
>