3.4.3 Physicalist Theories - 3 markers

Question 1

Philosophical behaviourism

Answer 1

A family of (physicalist) theories claiming that language about the mind (or mental states) can
be analysed in terms of language about behaviour (and/or behavioural dispositions).

Question 2

Hard behaviourism

Answer 2

All propositions about mental states can be reduced without loss of meaning to propositions that exclusively use the language of physics to talk about bodily states/movements

Question 3

Behavioural disposition

Answer 3

A conditional statement about how someone would be likely to behave in a particular situation. Behavioural dispositions have an “if… then…” structure e.g. “if he is offered hummus, he will eat it.”

Question 4

Super spartan

Answer 4

A hypothetical being who can feel pain, but never exhibits any pain behaviour whatsoever i.e if they are being tortured they won’t say “ouch!”, cry out, etc. but if someone asks if they are in pain they will reply with “yes, this is very painful”.