Behaviourism and the mechanization of the mind

Abstract

The significance of Behaviourism is examined in relation to its far conceptual roots, i.e. comparative animal studies initiated by Darwin, mechanistic physiological thinking initiated by Descartes and empiricist associationism. The Behaviourist anti-mentalist position induced neuromechanistic interpretations based on Pavlovian reflexes, stimulus-response connectionism and the very first hypotheses on synaptic plasticity. As a result, the evolutionary tradition was dropped and the two other trends were combined into a new adaptive version of Cartesian automaton, with persisting influences in modern reductionist thinking, from robotics and cognitive science to the neuroscience of learning and memory.