Physicalism, Behaviorism and Incompleteness

Abstract

The content of this paper contains four parts. (1) First, physicalism gives the enlightenments to behaviorism: mind-body identity, objectivity like physics and completeness of reduction. (2) Secondly, there are difficulties which behaviorist could not overcome—both the reduction of the theory and the terms are unreliable, and the strict distinction between introspective method and inter-subjective method is also untenable. (3) Thirdly, It has inevitable incompleteness in one theory no matter what it claims due to the limitations of human cognition. (4) Finally, the author concludes that we should treat various theories in a "both this and that" but "either this or that" way. Therefore, we should admit the contribution of behaviorism and its model philosophy—physicalism, although they has failed in seeking for completeness.