Rachlin, H. & Frankel, M. (2009).
Taking pragmatism seriously: A review of William Baum’s
Understanding Behaviorism: Behavior, Culture, and
Evolution (Second Edition).
Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 92, 131-137.
This important book has two main purposes. The first is to present, in a
non-technical way, accessible to intelligent laypeople, a scientific,
behavioral approach to all aspects of human activity including choice,
rule-governed behavior, self control, religious belief, linguistic
interaction, ethics, and culture. Its scope equals that of Skinner’s
nontechnical writings, but Baum’s approach is more molar and more pragmatic
than Skinner’s. The book’s second purpose is to embed behavioral
science firmly in the context of Darwinian evolution. Baum is generally
successful, we believe, in both of these ambitious purposes.
Key words: behavioral evolution, biological evolution, behaviorism,
Darwin, group selection, molar behaviorism, pragmatism, social evolution