Editing Radical behaviorism (section)

==Explaining behavior and the importance of the environment==
{{Original research section|date=December 2020}}
[[John B. Watson]] argued against speaking of mental states and held that psychology should study behavior directly, holding private events as impossible to study scientifically. Skinner rejected this position, conceding the importance of thinking, feelings and "inner behavior" in his analysis. Skinner did not hold to truth by agreement, as Watson did, so he was not limited by observation.

In Watson's days (and in Skinner's early days), it was held that psychology was at a disadvantage as a science because behavioral explanations should take physiology into account. Very little was known about physiology at the time. Skinner argued that behavioral explanations of psychological phenomena are "just as true" as physiological explanations. In arguing this, he took a non-[[reductionistic]] approach to psychology. Skinner, however, redefined behavior to include "everything that an organism does," including thinking, feeling and speaking, and argued that these phenomena were valid scientific subject matters.  The term ''radical behaviorism'' refers to just this: that everything an organism does is a behavior.{{Citation needed|date=December 2020}} However, Skinner ruled out thinking and feeling as valid explanations of behavior. According to him, thinking and feeling are not [[epiphenomena]] nor have they any other special status; they are just more behavior to explain. Skinner proposed environmental factors as proper causes of behavior because environmental factors are at a different logical level than behavior and actions, and one can manipulate behavior by manipulating the environment. This holds only for explaining [[operant]] behaviors.

Some{{Who?|date=July 2022}} argue that Skinner held that the organism is a blank slate or a ''[[tabula rasa]]''. Skinner wrote extensively on the limits and possibilities nature places on conditioning. According to him, conditioning is implemented in the body as a physiological process and is subject to the current state, learning history, and history of the species.<ref>Skinner, B.F. "On Having A Poem" in which he states: "I am not an S–R psychologist." He states this position again in ''About Behaviorism''.</ref> Skinner maintained that behavior can be explained without taking into account what goes on inside the organism. However, the black box is not private events, but physiology. Skinner considers physiology useful, interesting, valid, etc., but not necessary for operant behavioral theory and research.