An Argument Against “Moral Character” by Travis B. #3

Behavioral theory espouses that critical conscious thought is not a necessary element in the production of activity. Traditional behavioral theory, in fact, espouses that cognition is an epiphenomena to the behavioral sequence that can be directly observed. This reasoning is based on several fundamental principles: 1) to act does not indicate a deterministic logic to entail it, 2) the logic that parallels the behavior does not indicate the exclusivity of that behavior to that cognition, 3) and the logic and/or thought attached to the behavioral sequence does not explicitly indicate nor require that action be taken. The result is a behavioral theory based on positively or negatively reinforcing stimuli; each quality of stimuli determining the nature of the resulting or preceding activity. It is then the quality of the stimuli that contains these deterministic qualities necessary to extract a behavioral logic of necessary activity.