Minding Rachlin's eliminative materialism.
The Behavior analyst January 1, 2012 DOI: 10.1007/bf03392261 (opens in new tab) via PubMed
Summary
AI-generated from the abstractRachlin's teleological behaviorism eliminates the first-person ontology of conscious experience by identifying mental states with extended patterns of behavior, thereby maintaining the materialist ontology of science. An alternate view, informed by brain-based and externalist philosophies of mind, also maintains the materialist ontology of science but without eliminating the phenomenology of consciousness. This view implies that to be judged human, machines must not only exhibit complicated temporally structured patterns of behavior but also have first-person conscious experience. Although confirming machine sentience is likely problematic, extended contact with a machine that results in a person interacting with it as if it were conscious could reasonably lead to the conclusion that for all intents and purposes it is.
Study at a glance
| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Key finding | Argues that an alternative to teleological behaviorism, informed by brain-based and externalist philosophies of mind, maintains a materialist ontology without eliminating the phenomenology of consciousness, and that extended human-machine interaction could reasonably lead to treating a machine as conscious. |
Abstract
Rachlin's teleological behaviorism eliminates the first-person ontology of conscious experience by identifying mental states with extended patterns of behavior, and thereby maintains the materialist ontology of science. An alternate view, informed by brain-based and externalist philosophies of mind, is shown also to maintain the materialist ontology of science, but without eliminating the phenomenology of consciousness. This view implies that to be judged human, machines not only must exhibit complicated temporally structured patterns of behavior, but also must have first-person conscious experience. Although confirming machine sentience is likely to be problematic, extended contact with a machine that results in a person interacting with it as if it were conscious could reasonably lead to the conclusion that for all intents and purposes it is.