tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10856048.post2966951844362598405..comments2024-03-12T12:23:10.033-04:00Comments on Secular Perspectives: Subjective/ObjectiveUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10856048.post-67734613959710309882011-04-08T18:21:05.062-04:002011-04-08T18:21:05.062-04:00Gary, actually those that call themselves behavior...Gary, actually those that call themselves behaviorists do not in all cases reject the modeling of internal (and usually not directly observable) mental states. We had a Ph.D. Behaviorist show up at an MDC meeting and clarified that point for me. My understanding from him is that modern behaviorism is similar to what you assert for Cognitive Psychology.<br /><br />Psychoanalysis is so heavily linked historically to mythic bunk that I would prefer that it just disappear as a field.<br /><br />The rapid advances in fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) is blowing away any prior illusion that subjective and objective are discrete classes of reality. Scientists can now scan someone's brain and verify if the person is recognizing a scene that they have experienced in the past or not. Thus police can ask if a burglary subject has seen the interior of a home that had been burgled. This would not be forcing a person to testify against himself since he is not forced to give any testimony. The status of such evidence would be similar to testing someone's hands for gunshot residue.Don Whartonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11874733311091724239noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10856048.post-20066658236178630362011-04-08T17:17:04.207-04:002011-04-08T17:17:04.207-04:00I think that you have rediscovered Behaviorism in ...I think that you have rediscovered Behaviorism in your post. We can observe people's or animal responses and some argued we should just stop there - that's objective. The mental/cognitive world is less observable and we shouldn't speculate. <br /> <br />But the whole field of Cognitive Psychology attempts to get at mental models and such that may be the determiners of behavior. It develops models to predict behavior and not just measure responses to questions that may be based on subjective judgments.<br /><br />Unlike behaviorism, which focuses only on observable behaviors, cognitive psychology is concerned with internal mental states.<br /><br />And unlike psychoanalysis, which relies HEAVILY on subjective perceptions, cognitive psychology uses scientific research methods to study mental processes. For example it studies that factors that create a subjective experience of memory. It can study false memories and memory inferences. So I would say that a subjective experience like preference for a particular work of art is a topic of objective research. There really are subjective states biases, but they can be understood and studied.Gary Berg-Crosshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00104267265989624672noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10856048.post-25085494557018545752011-04-06T17:52:31.810-04:002011-04-06T17:52:31.810-04:00This post makes an excellent point. In practice th...This post makes an excellent point. In practice there is no such thing as a purely subjective category of reality. Subjective experience is a subset of the facts in the objective world. It is important to obliterate the confusion that comes from the misunderstood distinction because the illusion of a substantive difference is use to construct the notion of a separate "soul" that survives death. This misunderstanding is central to the support of "faith" in general.Don Whartonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11874733311091724239noreply@blogger.com