| Abstract: Teaching mentalism and naturalism in the behavioral, cognitive, and social sciences – and in the culture at large -- is difficult, especially when advancing a naturalistic perspective. Western philosophy and languages teach a mentalistic construct of mind. Behavior analysis teaches a naturalist concept of mind. This presentation teaches the distinction through an analogy based on the everyday relation between the climate and the weather. Although the content of the analogy can vary, its underlying logic is the same. One form of the analogy is this: “the climate is to the weather as personality is to behavior.” The climate does not cause of the weather. It describes uniformities in the weather over time (e.g., heat, humidity). Likewise, personality is not the cause of behavior, but describes uniformities in behavior over time (e.g., altruistic and aggressive behavior). According to Gilbert Ryle (1900-1976), to assume that climate and personality exist independently of weather and behavior is a “category mistake.” The presentation then expands on the analogy in other domains, among them, the relations between knowledge and knowing, competence and performance, memory and remembering, and language and verbal behavior. It concludes with a discussion of effective pedagogy in teaching behavior analysis. |