Consciousness Externalized? American Realism, Behaviorism, and Neobehaviorism at the Intersection of Perception and Environment

Realism first emerged in American philosophy around 1900 as an immediate dismissive reaction to idealism. In the course of the 1910s and 1920s, two dominant forms of realism developed, “new” or neorealism and “critical” realism. While the defenders of the former argued in terms of a direct, non-representational approach to perceptible reality, the advocates of the latter strove for a more indirect, representation-loaded conception. On the psychological side, behaviorism developed as the first genuinely American variety of experimental psychology at the beginning of the 1910s. According to the classical behaviorist approach, introspective methods are to be discarded since notions such as ‘mind’ or ‘consciousness’ are without any explanatory value. The behaviorist experimenter defines behavior through a direct stimulus-response relationship and therefore needs nothing behind behavior to explain it. The brain as such is merely regarded as a black box. This radically anti-mentalist view was challenged by neobehaviorism, which developed in the 1920s. From the neobehaviorist perspective, mentalist notions such as ‘purpose,’ ‘belief,’ or ‘representation’ should at least be allowed as useful tools, if not even as explanatory means, in psycho-behavioral research. Remarkably, there were numerous relationships and connections between the US-American philosophical and empirical-psychological currents of the early twentieth century outlined in this way, not only in terms of content, but also in terms of personnel and institutions, which make comprehensive research within the framework of a DFG follow-up project appear to be highly relevant.

The main objective of the present project is to historically reconstruct and critically analyze the conceptions of consciousness discussed in the context of American realism, behaviorism, and neobehaviorism in the 1910s, 20s, and 30s. The systematic starting point for the research to be conducted is the attempt, promoted in particular by the neorealists, to completely externalize consciousness. The approach is necessarily interdisciplinary, the method inspired by what has become known as integrated history and philosophy of science. In particular, the following questions will be addressed: (1) What exactly was the relationship of American neorealism to classical behaviorism? (2) To what extent did American neorealism prepare the ground for neobehaviorism? (3) What exactly were the reasons for the rejection of classical behaviorism by American critical realism? (4) Was there any substantial connection between American critical realism and neobehaviorism? (5) How did the contemporary – partially rivalling – currents of pragmatism, operationalism and logical empiricism in the 1930s relate to the programs of critical realism and neobehaviorism which developed in parallel?