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Psycholog ical Reports,
1972, 30, 759-770.
Psycholog ical Reports
1972
BEHAVIORISM VERSUS PHENOMENOLOGY:
A NEE3LESS C ONC EPTUAL MUDDLE
GEORGE GREAVES
Georgia
tate
University
Summasy.-The perennial debate which has ensued over whether behavioral
or phenom enological approaches to psychology are the more scientific and
fruitful rests on
fundamental confusions in the way the language and concepts of
these approaches are emp loyed. Th is issue is analyzed in depth, sources of con
fusion are analyzed, and how the two approaches may be related is suggested.
T he behaviorism-phecomenology issue has become a matter of perennial de-
bate in psychology. Perha ps to write still another article about this area may
seem to be beating a dead horse. But in my view the horse is not dead, no mat-
ter how frustrated or tired he may be, nor has sufficient attention been paid to
the conceptzl l b se which gives rise to this issue in the first place. I would like
to attend a moment to this conceptual base in order to see if some of the prob-
lems, arguments, and frustrations concerning this issue as we now experience
them
do not drop away.
W e confuse ourselves so often when we go to talk about things. W e take
our language for granted, assuming that the language we speak is English, or
French, or German , or Russian, and that is that. But, as W ittgens tein has so
convincingly pointed out 1953) , the language we speak is actually composed
of many smaller language-games. Th e appro priate language-game we are to em-
ploy is
a
functio n of w hat we wa nt to say. Furth ermo re, the adm ixture of Ian-
guage-games, the interpo sitioning of the words of one language-game in anoth er,
can lead to logical and conceptual absurdities (Ryle, 1949) .
Psychologists, save for such persons as Mandler and Kessen
1959) ,
have
been, by and large, unaw are of the pervasiveness of their attin ides toward lan-
guage in the way they o about doing their particular thing. Tw o language-
games in particular have been the bane of modern psychology, and constitute
the subject matter of this particular piece.
T h e man-on-the-streex is a naive realist. H e believes in th e existence of a
world qui te indep enden t of his senses. M ore accurately, he knows that if he
shrivels up and blows away, there will still be an Empire State Building and the
Green Bay Packers. N o t s far as
he
is concerned, of course, but insofar as the
rest of the world is co nc er nd . And th e man-on-the-street employs a particular
language to describe that part of reality which is independent of his senses, a
language which I shall refer to
in
this piece as extr sentient discourse. Ships,
shoes, sealing wax, caK~ages, and kings, are all extrasen tient words. So
also are brain,
pH
level, sodium -potass ium depolarization, and n erve net-
work pattern. Extrasentient discourse is the language of the out there, the
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"objective." T he semantical and syntactical rules of extrasentient discourse per-
mit of the predication of such properties, called physical, as "weight," "energy
level," "mass," a nd so on . Th ere are extrasentien t verbs, too, as well as nouns
and adjectives. These includ e such examples as "the rat runs," "th e rat shrieks,"
"the rat jumps," or "the rat moves left or right, or around the cage, or into the
corner," the last expressions being adverbial.
In general, we are able to get along rather w ell with the Norway rat in
terms of extrasencient d isco ~u se. W e are able to talk about him all day with
relative ease. But the hum an confounds us.
Not only does he speak extrasen-
cient language as well or nearly as well as we, the scientist, but he utters a sec-
ond , strange language, a language which follows different rules of semantics and
syntax. T he hu ma n tells us he "feels tired," or is "depressed," or th at he has
"butterflies in his stomach" and is somew hat "nauseous." In other words, he
speaks a language of experiences. Th ere are verbs in this latter language-game,
too. A person tells us he is "thinking," or "imagining," or "daydreaming," or
that he is "working o n a great idea."
Such talk So goyish. W h a t a troublemaker this hum an is. And we be-
gin t o riddle as we sit in our laboratories and study our records of op eran t levels.
"How heavy is an idea?" "W here is an idea?
In a brain? Th en why can't I
find an idea when lop u p a brain? And, how woiild I even recognize one if I
found it?" "How big would an image be just supposing I found one in a brain?
A micron in diameter? Te n microns? Perhaps three centimeters?" But it
soon becomes obvious th at the rules of semantics and syntax in th e two language-
games will not pe rmi t us to mix the concepts together in this way. Th us, in
the many scores of years that have passed since Descartes formulated the mod-
ern dilemma of interactionism, philosophers have been stru ggling with a per-
plexing question: "How can a massless, incorporeal substance (mind) cause ac-
tivity in, or produce motion in, a corporeal substance (body)
?
But the strug-
gle was in vain, for the above question is not a question a t all. It is a pseudo-
q u e s t i o n a n unquestion, as i t were. Th e above construction forms a sentence
which is not a part of any language-game.
T o recognize the abov e as an unquestion is not to resolve the problem,
however. W e are still faced with a creature who uses two distinctively different
language-games in referring to himself.
There are obviously only two main directions we can go when faced with
the two-language phenomen on. W e can discard one or the other language and
concept-set altogether, or we can try to live wich both . If in t he discarding of
one language mode altogether one keeps experiential discourse as his mode of
speech, he becomes a radical phenomenalist. If, o n the other hand , on e clings
co extrasen tient discou rse alone, on e becomes a radical behaviorist. N ei th er of
these positions is methodologically appealing, for it forces one into the position
of holding that the mode of discourse one is rejecting is somehow irrelevant, or,
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BEHAVIORISM VERSUS PH NOM NOLOGY
76
at best, a needless duplicacion of the preferred language. As Bergmam
1956
puts it, however, Watson's assertion that there was no such thing as conscious-
ness is philosophically "silly."
Given the one-languege approach
as
untenable, however, how do we learn
to live with the two-language problem?
Certainly we would not want to claim on any grounds, especially behavioral
grounds, that there is no overt relationship between the two languages. After
all, when a person says that he is in pain, I have learned from past experience to
expect certain cotemporaneous behavioral manifestations: perhaps a pallid face,
perspiration of the hands, an increased rate of respiration, a drawn expression,
a groan, a change in the q~al ityf the voice. Eventually I may come to associate
these behavioral manifestations of pain with the word "pain" to the extent that
I may hold that "pain" actually names the behavior itself. But, if so, I have
forgotten that the relationship of pain and pain-behavior is a contingent one. If
a person is laughing, smiling, joking, and carrying on a jovial conversation in
which he claims to be in incense pain, I may infer that he is lying or that he mis-
understands how the word is commonly used. Yet this is not necessarily the
case. Documentary literature and folklore are both filled with stories of persons
dying from dread and agonizing diseases, yet who were unable to keep their suf-
fering from the eyes of others.
very intense conceptual and methodological problem is raised when
those suffering from the manic drives of reductionism begin attempting to uans-
late experiential language into extrasentient terms. After all, one way to at-
tempt to live with the two-language problem is to claim that everything that can
be said in the one language can be said in the other. In other words, one could
claim that the concepts of the one language are somehow reducible to the con-
cepts of the other.
I have known persons, for instance, who have held that experiential utter-
ances about pain are reducible to some set of behavioral concepts. Next, con-
fusing physics with psychology, they take Bridgman at his word and proceed
operationally to define
pain.
Eventually "pain" comes to name the deflection
of a galvanometer needle aztached to an eleccrode, imbedded in some nerve or
other. The problem, of course, occurs when the needle is deflected but the sub-
ject insists that he feels no "pain." Now the bizarre situation is created in
which an experimenter and subject may argue with one another
as
to whether
or not the subject feels pain And, if the experimenter absolutely insists that his
definition of pain is the only genuine definition, or at least the only legitimate
one, the subject is now placed in the position of having to invent a new word al
together to name what he formerly called pain. This is made all the more bizarre
when one realizes that man knew for centuries that he was periodically in pain,
long before the invention of galvanometers or the science of neurology.
But the whole behavioristic-reductionistic muddle does not end here. What
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kind of behavior is named by thinking o r problem solving. Th e idiosyn-
cratic behavior which may accompany problem solving may vary from hyperac-
tive, manic-like activity, to the docile quiet of Sherlock Holm es w hom we a re
told would simply draw his knees up under his chin in his chair, close his eyes
and sit motionless for long periods of time.
I do not w ant to deal any further with the notion of reductionism here.
I
only want to present the view that
I
think the whole notion of reductionism is
untenable and ill-conceived, and hinges on some very dubious assumptions. I
shall defend this view elsewhere. In this present piece I want to show how we
can reject reductionism and still resolve the two-language problem .
Obviously, no methodologist can tolerate interactionistic concepts in his
work (Marx Hillix, 19 63 ). Occasionalism (McD ougall, 19 11 ) is at best a
joke from the psychological perspective.
Parallelism (Hospers, 1953) is a rela-
tively harmless concept for the purpose of psychological methodology, and,
e
facto many psychologists do mak e parallelistic assump tions in their work. Epi-
phenomenalism is yet another position which would be methodologically quite
tenable to most researchers (G reave s, 19 66 ). Ye t parallelism and epiphe -
nomenalism each present their own conceptual and logical problems, including
parsimonious considerations.
But the above approaches are not the only possible ones in attempting to
bridge the gap between the cognitive and non-cognitive methodological posi-
tions.
Implicit in the whole
behavioral phenomenological
affair is that these two
positions repres ent two putatively different ways of talking about the organism,
that they represent different kinds of concepts or have different kinds of refer-
ents. T o pu t it another way, behavioral/phenomenological positions have been
presented as if they are mutually exclusive positions, that somehow there is one
right way to talk abou t the organism, and largely through an accident of history,
the right way has come to mean the behavioral way. Th is is why I am now sug-
gesting that this whole affair is a red herrin g issue, the result of
concepnral mis-
takes and preconceptions which can be avoided altogether.
I a m not going to pretend, however, that the conceptual scheme I am about
to present is a n easy one. And neither is it a wholly original one, being strongly
influenced by Feigl (1961,
196 6), Place ( 19 56 ), Smart (1 959 ), and Spinoza
1919).
Furthermore, the ontological dualism which has come down to us
with our culture forces certain conceptual sets on us from which it is difficult to
escape. Nevertheless, let us proceed as best we can.
W e , as hum an beings, are caught up in a sort of dilemma w hen we try to
talk about ourselves.
First of all, we are living organisms. No w , being an or-
ganism
and
talking about an organism are not the same thing. F~lrthe rmor e, t
is not the same thing to talk about an organism and to talk about being an or-
ganism.
The language-game here, of course, is that of ontology, of that which exists,
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BEHAVIORISM V RSUS PHENOMENOLOGY 763
of reality, if you prefer. Let us not quibble.
Without any sort of philosophical
defense, let us allow that the pen with which I am writing exists, the paper on
which I am writi ng exists, th e desk at which I sit exists. And let us allow that
each of these items is
distinct
from the other.
H o w d o
I
talk about these items? W ell, I can say, this item here, or that
item there. Or,
I can say that the pen is red and the paper white. T he desk is
mad e of birch, and stained in English oak. T he pen is in. long, the paper is
8
X
in., the desk is
X
6
ft.
Now let us hold thae
I
exist. D o not hang on the word 1. Let us just
suppose that an organism is sitting here writing, such that when that organism
refers to itself, or designates itself, or uses what in grammar we call reflexive
langua ge, it calls itself "I." Th is is not to name som e hidden creature inside the
organism , but to distinguish itself verbally from a "you," or a "he," or an "it,"
which are other existent things.
Now, let this organism which refers to itself as
I
talk abou t itself. It is
5
ft., llx in. tall. It weigh s
195
lb. I t has hazel eyes. No w, let it describe it-
self behaviorally.
N o problem. T he organism which calls itself
I
is writing a
paper, the organism periodically paces, looks into the distance, rubs its chin.
Thus, the language used to talk about the organism called
I
is no different
from the language used to talk about other objects. T h e language mode is extra-
sentient.
All
right, now let the organism called
I
talk about what it is like to be the
pen with which he is writing.
Wait a minute.
Prima
f cie
the organism is no t the pen. Being the pen
means being identical with the pen. I n other words, in order to be the pen,
the organism called
I
would have to
be
the pen. Th is is an imp orta nt tautology.
Could the organism which calls itself then talk abou t what i t is like to be
the organism called
I?
Given that it has the power of language, of course it
could.
What is i t l ike, then, being this organism? Well at this moment this or-
ganism is rather excited ab ou t wh at he has to say. Bu t he is tired, also, and his
eyes burn.
H e has a crick in h is neck, also.
W h a t is all this stuff Ach "Excited?" "Tired?" "Eyes bu rn? " "Crick
in the neck?" W h a t kind of nonsense language is this?
This is no nonsense at all to the organism which uttered these statements.
Nor ate these utterances ncnsensical to any other organism which understands
the meaning of these words.
Can we conclude, however, from the basis of the foregoing that because the
organism speaks in two different ways that there are two different things: the
organism
nd
something called the organism's experiences? Th e answer is
an
unequivocal
no
Because tte organism talks first about itself in extrasentient
terms, and then again in experiential terms, this in no way logically implies
that two differen t things are being named. Th ere is not one being called th e or-
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ganism and anoth er bein g called experiences-yet this is exactly what traditional
dualism has been conning us to believe.
This organism is a being (thin g) in the same way a pen is a being (th ing ).
Th is organism is qui te different, however, from the pen it is holding. Th is or-
ganism has limbs, a heart, lungs, bloodstream, and a brain, co mention only a
few choice omissions in the pen. T he pe n cannot tell us about its being because
it is not the right kind of thing to be aware of its being, let alone talk about
such. It simply does not have the necessary equipm ent for experiencing and
talki ng abo ut it. But just because I do have the necessary equipment does not
mak e me any less unified than t he pen, a Paramecium, a toad, or a walrus. It is
curious that the concept of a Paramecium w ithin a Paramecium, or a toad withi n
a toad, has not caught on like the little invisible man within the man. And,
theologically speaking, it is curious chat when one reaches the phyletic level of
man a soul suddenly appears.
Anim als are automata; man has a soul. I t is un-
fortunate chat gorillas and pigs d o not discourse i n language we can understand.
W he n they began to tell us about their aches and pains, their aspirations, their
fears, their feelings, we should have to talk about gorillas within gorillas and
pigs within pigs using our logic. Th e confusion these two modes of discourse
have caused is boundless
All right, then, what exactly are we talking ab out when we use experiential
discourse? My assertion is that the refere nt of experiential language is the or-
ganism.
W ai t another minute. D id we not just state above that when we talk about
the organism we use extrasentient discourse?
Now you are saying that experi-
ential language also talks about the organism.
My reply is that both of the assertions are true, but they do not talk about
the organism in the same way. W h at ultimately determines whether we utter
experiential o r extrasentient language is the structure of the situation, or the
frame of reference, within w hich we find ourselves. If w e perceive our task to
be that of describing the "out there," the object world, we choose extrasentient
language.
This also applies to the organism called I W e have no particular
difficulty in regarding ourselves as an object in the world of objects nor of
speaking of ourselves in appropriate extrasentient terms.
On the other hand, if
we perceive our task to be th e regarding of the organism referred to as
I
as sub-
ject, i.e., of describing our being, w e select experiential language. T o put i t an-
other way: describing what an organism is like, and what it is like to be an or-
ganism are different tasks for which we employ different language. Neverth e-
less, whether this organism is referring to itself in experiential or extrasentient
language, it is still referring to this organism.
Why, then, the question follows, if the organism is referring to one thing,
viz., the organism, does it need two languages?
It is not a question of need in any motivational sense, but of need in a
logical sense. T h e organism is not mentally frail.
It does not suffer from a
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VERSUS
PH NOM NOLOGY
76
lack of wit. I t simply is incapable of b eing simultaneously i n a subjective and
objective orientatio n or f ram e of reference.
Suppose that
I m
magining the proverbial patch of green and a neurologist
who is probing my brain says that he has isolated a characteristic pattern of
neural activity when I do this. Suppose he arranges mirro rs so I can see what
is going on in my head end on the oscilloscopes to which I am attached such
that
I
can also witness the characteristic neural patterns which occur when
I
imagine a patch
of
green.
m I
not now in
both
frames of reference at once?
No , for I am first regarding myself a s the experiencer of the patch of green and
then as the object whose brain is doing so and so. N o matter how quickly I al-
ternate from o ne orientation to another, I am never in both frames of reference,
or orientations, at once. Consequently, it is logically impossible for m e to con-
struct a legitimate statement of the sort: The patch of green
s
the change in th e
electrical potential in the brain of the organism called
I.
There is, however,
the legitimate statem ent of the for m: W he n a certain pattern of brain activity
is present in the brain of chis organism, this same organism experiences a patch
of green, and vice versa.
My objection to identity-statements of t he an image is a brain process sort
is that they fail to preserve th e orientation or frame of reference distinctio n which
is at the roo t of experiential and extrasentient discourse. W e do not arrive at ex-
trasentient and experiential concepts in the same way, and we do not intend to
convey the same things by them. T o atte mp t the identity-reduction commits a
semantical error.
There is a slightly different approach which both preserves the integriry of
the modes of discourse and allows us
to
be monistic. Instead of holding that
ideas and brain processes are identical concepts, as surely no on e would seri-
ously attem pt to do, one can argue that the word idea and the word brain
processes nam e the same actual process in the brain. In ocher words, one can
ma intain the logical independence of the words, as one must do if he is to avoid
a tautologous statement, while at the same time having a common link, viz.,
some aspect of the organism. I t should be evident, however, that this
link
does
not permit of linguistic reductionism, for the link between the
two
languages
is not a linguistic link, it is a factual link.
But this is hardly a handicap, for
s
in ll factual schemas, given one ele-
men t of the factual relationship, w e can infer the other. Hence, given that the
subject reports a patch of green, our factual relationship allows us to infer cer-
tain neurological processes are present and vice versa.
It
should be made clear at the onset exactly who is doing the inferrin g. At -
tempts to reduce data about consciousness to behavior lead to ridiculous asser-
tions about an individual's inferring certain data of consciousness from his be-
havior. On this view a person infers that he is in pain by referencing his be-
havior.
The inadequacies of this view are immediately evident, and again represent
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the confusion which inevitably results from equating or identifying behavioral
an d phenom enal concepts. O n the other hand, if we wish to argue that
an
out-
side observer somehow makes certain inferences about a subject's phenom enal
experiences o n the basis of the sub ject's behavior, this is quit e another matter.
The problems involved in acquiring such knowledge have been extensively ex-
plored by such writers as Ayer (1 9 64 ), Malcolm (1 96 4 ), and many others.
There is no need to duplicate their efforts.
I t is imp ortant to our discussion, however, to review some of the conceptual
problems implicit i n this frame of reference scheme as
have presented it here.
Let us look again at our claim. T h e theoretical stand being taken is that
certain neurological events referred to in extrasentient language are the same
events referred to i n certain experiential language. In other words, the orga-
nism itself is the referen t for each kind of discourse. Th is does not perm it us to
claim, however, that an image, for instance, is the same thing
s
a neurological
event, for our discourse will not perm it of such constructions (he rein I diff er
sharply from Place and Sm art) . Th e claim is, rather, that images and neurologi-
cal events have a comm on reference in terms of the organism, and differ in their
conceptual character as a function of their being grounded in two different and
mutually exclusive frames of reference, or orientations, viz., the organism as sub-
ject and the organism as object.
The intention of the subject when using experiential discourse is not to
refer to some neurological event or other. s was pointed out before, experi-
ential discourse existed for centuries before anything was known about brains or
nerves or synapses. Conversely, the intentio n of th e neurophysiologist is not to
talk about consc io~~snessr images. T he concepts of experiential discourse and
that of extrasentient discourse are quite logically independent and in no way
imply one another except as a contingency.
Th e first link-u p of th e two conceptual sets occurred th roug h the process
of correlation, largely through brain-damage studies. Especially du rin g and af-
ter World Wars I and 11, certain types of brain lesions were seen to be accom-
panied by certain changes in experiential reports s well as in behavior. In the
pas t forty years, th e study of so-called psychophysical co-ord inates of behav ior
has become an area of considerable im portance, culmin ating in the w ork of such
important researchers as Luria (1966).
It is often pointed out, however, that one cannot argue from a large correla-
tion, even one- to-on e correlation to any form of identity-hypothesis. Suppose I
find a perfect correlation between the presence of knives and forks at every
place setting in a large banquet hall. From this I cann ot assert that a knife is a
fork. Furthermore, i t is routinely pointed o ut that it would be impossible, in
principle, to design an ex perim ent which could ever validate any sort of identity-
hypothesis. W e can equate things only if we can show that they are conceptu-
ally or operationally equivalent or if we can locate them at the same place at
the same time. I can say that an qw s is a horse, because we can compare con-
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BEH KORISM
VERSUS PH NOM NOLOGY 7 7
cepts and find them t be the same. Or we can point to an object in a field
somewh ere and find that we give it a different name although the names have
an identical referent.
I n the case of images and neural events however
I
have no such ability.
Th e two terms ate con ce~ tua lly ar different and since I cannot apply spatial
predicates to experiential language I can never p i n t t o a common referent in
space. Th e strongest empirical hypothesis I can ever validate concerning the
relation of images and neural events is that wh en one is temporally present the
other is also and vice versa.
Still another problem arises out of the peculiar conceptual status of the term
organism i n my approach to the problem of the tw o modes of discourse. Ex
hypothesi extrasentie nt discourse regardless how mu ch it is com plicated fails
to completely describe the organism for it refers to only one aspect of the or-
ganism viz. its objective status or orientation. O n the other hand experiential
l anguage desc ribes only t h ~ubjective stams or orientation in regard to the or-
ganism. T he organism however is viewed as lying in both frames of reference
at once i.e. th e organism is simultaneously a subjective and objective being or
thing. Y et it is logically inconceivable that any language could be devised which
could describe the organism qua organism i.e. a language neither experiential
or extrasentient yet a language to which each is reducible. T o put it another
way the theory I have described is a double-aspect theory in which
org nism
becomes a primitive undefinable concept. Th e closest we could ever com e to
describing an organism would be through the conjoining of all possible corre-
latable experiential and extrasentient statements. Th is would however consti-
tute a parallelism and no t a monism .
I am of course aware
of
these difficulties
and
more but I am
not
sure ex-
actly how important they are. T h e empirical objections in terms of th e in-
validatability of identity or double-aspect hypotheses d o not bother me. W e ate
after all w orking with a theory here not an hypothesis. Theo ries ate not capa-
ble of being true or false. They are good or bad productive or unproductive.
The ultimate justification of a theory is to be found solely in pragmatic con-
siderations. Even the coveted principle of parsimony so ofte n used as a con-
ceptual ax is justified only o n pragmatic grounds. Eliteness has no intrinsic
value. theory is said to be validata ble if i t predicts previously unobs erved
events and explains and organizes already existent data. Later we shall explore
some of the predictions of th e present theory and see that they can i n principle
be verified or falsified.
The concepmal problems are another matter and I should best deal with
them i n this way. T he conditions of our existence and the repertoire of o ur
possible experiences impose certain limits on our ability to reason about the
world. I n this respect I am very much a Kan tian. No rhin g has so much occu-
pied the history of the problem of knowledge as the dichotomy between subject
and object. Th e pendulum
has
swung smugly from materialisni to idealism a
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number of times and in a number of guises, and scores of attempts have been
made to reduce subject-object language either to one another or to a common
language. Only humans seem to have this problem, for only humans seem to
use language to any appreciable extent. What
I
am suggesting, however, is
that the condition of our existence imposes the subject-object dichotomy on us
inescapably. W e are simultaneously an object in a world of objects and an ex-
periencing being. The reason I cannot devise a reductionistic language in which
to describe myself is that the conditions of my existence prohibit any possibility
of entering into an experiential world in which I am neither subject nor object
or into an extrasentient world in which I am one with all objects.
The one possible exception to this claim is that experience referred to as
the mystical state in which the predominant description is a feeling of one-
ness, or a feeling of unity with the
All
(James,
1902 . I
certainly do not
make light of such claims, for the I-thou/I-it distinction does nor seem to be
prevalent in newborn children and is developed only through perceptual ex-
perience. Furthermore, the sharpness of the I-thou distinction seems to be
largely dissolved through training in Zen, through the effects of such drugs
as
LSD, through religious experiences, autohypnosis, or plain old mystical states.
Even so, written or oral discourse while in these various states still maintains its
dualistic flavor, and when a person under the influence of LS claims to be
One with the flower petals at which he is gazing or claims to be the flower it-
self, we are more likely
to
regard such language
as
metaphorical or projective.
The person involved in the mystical experience is generally quite cognizant of
his linguistic limitations and knowingly resorts to the use of metaphors. Uni-
versally the claim is found that the pure mystical experience is ineffable
(James,
1902 .
The One or the All in mystical language thus takes on the same
quality of the primitive and undefinable as our concept organism.
Obviously, I am not claiming that organism is a mystical term, though I
am
sure some reader might have some fun with this notion. My claim is simply
that when we attempt to dissolve the subject-object dichotomy, we dissolve our
language as well. This is just as true whether the dissolution takes the form
of reductionism to materialistic or phenomenalistic terms, or whether the dis-
solution takes the form of a common, underlying monism. Given that the terms
ideas and neural events are not reducible to one another but refer to a common
entity, one is immediately moved to ask what the entity is like. But there are
no words. The entity is a logical construct made necessary by the demands of
the language-games we play, and from which we cannot escape.
There is nothing to bemoan in this state of affairs.
Just because the dic-
tates of our language which reflect the conditions of our existence compel us
to deal with the problem in this way, this does not mean that organisms do not
exist.
I
am an organism;
I
exist. You are an organism; you exist. Our problem
is not whether organisms exist; this has never been a problem in our discussion.
The problem, if it be a problem at all, is that we cannot talk about the organism
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qua organis m because of th e impossibility of devising such a language.
W e can
talk about characteristics of th e organism all nigh t: it chinks, feels, moves,
speaks, eats, sleeps, runs, jumps, swims, writes music, listens to music, etc.
W e
can predicate literally thousan ds of things about organisms. Buc we cannot
predicate organismic essences of organisms.
W h at empirical hypotheses follow from our theory? Let us list just a few:
(a) Given certain brain states of an organism, certain phenomenal states can be
inferred and vice versa, based on prior correlational data.
( b ) Th e repetit ion of
a given neural patcern would be cotemporaneous with the repetition of a given
phenomenological pattern. ( c ) Phenomenological experiences and specifiable
neural activities are always exactly co tem pr an eo us occurrences. ( d ) Phe-
nomenological activity could nor take place apart from the locus of the orga-
nism. ( e ) Phenomeno logical experiences are not, in principle, private experi-
ences.
Admittedly, hypotheses a, 6 and are neither particularly exciting or re-
vealing. O ne m ig ht describe them as old hat.
Yet hypothesis d is of crucial
importance, for its refutation would strike a telling blow to our theory. Th is is
also true of hypotheses a 6, and c, though they would be somewhat harder to re-
fute based on technological limitations.
If
the science-fiction and gr nd ui nol
aspects of psychic research could be thrown away, some m eaningf ul experim ents
might be performed in this area, experiments which might take this important
hypothesis to task. T he verification of such elusive pheno men a as astral pro -
jection o r clairvoyance wou ld be significant in the rejection of this hy pothesis.
Hyp othesis is as crucial to the su pp or t of the theory as hypothesis d. Hy-
pothesis is especially interescing since no form of Cartes ian dualism would
predict it, i n fact, would predict precisely the opposite. Furthe rmor e, hy-
pochesis e is thoroughly at odds with ou r folklore, both in and out of psychology,
as well as being at odds with our common-sense view of personal identity.
T h e concep tual basis for hypothesis may be understood in terms of a
thought-experiment which I will refer to as the Siamese brain experim ent.
Suppose we take two subjects,
A
and
B
and attach th e left optical cortex of
A to the right optical cortex of
B.
W h en the juncture is made we can con-
ceptually no longer speak of the right op tical cortex of A or the left optical
cortex of
B,
but only of the comm on cortex of
A
and
B.
Suppose now that
B
closes his eyes and we show a red card to
A .
Then
suppose we ask
B
what he is experiencing and he tells us he experiences some-
thing red. W e show A a blue card, and reports blue, etc.
Then we turn the
situation around and show the cards to
B
and ask for A's report. Giv en these
conditions there would be no logical basis on which to assert that
A
had an ex-
perience and
B
had an experience, making two experiences in all. In oth er
words, from a common neurological event we cannot argue that tw different
perceptual events occurred. T o do so would be to confuse the perceptual report
with the perceptual event, and to argue that since one report came from
A s
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G. GREAVES
mo uth and ano ther from B s, there were two events. Th ere were only two re-
ports.
The point I am making, of course, is that the reason I do not experience
what you experience simply by looking at your brain activity is that
I
am not a
part of your system. T h e brain, after all, is easily view ed as a system of closed
circuits, or rather as a closed electrical system. Insofar as I becom e merged w ith
your system, therefore, insofar as I become neurologically hooked u p with you,
as it were, to that extent would we have common experiences.
ll this, of course, represen ts a grea t oversim plification .
A
thought-ex-
periment is not in any way designed to be a laboratory experiment or to sub-
stitute for it.
It is designed to test and explore concepts. Ye t with ou r vastly
accelerating knowledge of neurophysiology and ne~~ rop hys iolo gic alechniques,
it will not be far off before some expe rimen tal tests of hypothesis will be
realized.
In laying
a
firm theoretical foundation which removes the dualistic stigma
from our heritage without doing injustice to our language, we still have not re-
solved all of the main problems associated with
behavioral/phenomenological
issues. W e have treated only one aspect, the most imp orta nt aspect, of the is-
sues. Th ere are yet other conceptual problems which have led to the behavioral/
phenomen ological split. T o some of these we will later turn our attention .
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Accepted February 28
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