A resolution between mentalism and teleonomy, or fodder for a continuing dialogue?
Scientists, including psychologists, are often disturbed by the psychological interpretation of animal behavior. Nick Thompson offered a teleonomic approach to the use of psychological terms to describe behavior that avoided the assumption that mental states (or other entities or processes) caused the behavior. I describe tensions between teleonomic and mentalistic conceptualizations of animals by some early comparative psychologists, and offer our skill at kinesthetic-visual matching as an explanation as to why humans so often assume that mental states cohere with behavior. My explanation elucidates why mentalistic interpretations of behavior remain after teleonomic description.
Mitchell
Robert W
RW
Department of Psychology, Eastern Kentucky University, Richmond, KY 40475, USA. robert.mitchell@eku.edu
D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D049674:History, 21st Century; D006801:Humans; D008606:Mental Processes / Q000502:physiology; D008960:Models, Psychological; D011584:Psychology / Q000266:history