The Beetle in Skinner’s Box

• Autor(a) principal: Dourado, Luiza Bacchi
• Data de Publicação: 2021
• Outros Autores: Lopes, Carlos Eduardo, Pompermaier, Henrique Mesquita
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Psicologia (Universidade de Brasília. Online)
• Texto Completo: https://periodicos.unb.br/index.php/revistaptp/article/view/27473
• topic: Private events, Psychological language, Language games, Skinner, Wittgenstein; Eventos privados, Linguagem psicológica, Jogos de linguagem, Skinner, Wittgenstein

The literature has indicated some approximations between Skinner’s and Wittgenstein’s proposals, such as a critical standpoint on traditional psychological language conceptions. For Wittgenstein, the critique refers to the impossibility of a private language. On the other hand, Skinner’s critique culminates in defense of the concept of private events. However, this concept seems inconsistent with Wittgenstein’s proposal. Based on this assumption, this paper aims to reevaluate the role of the concept of ‘private events’ in Skinnerian behaviorism in the light of Wittgenstein’s critical discussions. For this, Wittgenstein’s and Skinner’s proposals were systematically compared. It is concluded that the concept of private events is not to escape Wittgenstein’s criticisms of the traditional psychological language.