Science and Philosophy of Behavior Selected Papers

Rediscover the science and philosophy of behavior

In Science and Philosophy of Behavior: Selected Papers, distinguished researcher W. M. Baum delivers an expansive collection of incisive papers setting out a new paradigm of thinking about behavior. The book offers only articles that put forward a philosophical and theoretical framework for an effective natural science of behavior. Quantitative analysis is largely avoided (except for a paper on, of all things, avoidance).

Organized into three parts, the author explains the flow-like nature of behavior and its link to evolution, as well as descriptions of a pure form of behaviorism that correct some flaws in B.F. Skinner's seminal works. The book also links behaviorism to anthropology in its final section.

Readers will also find:

• Fulsome descriptions of the molar nature of behavior and why the molecular view is misguided
• Re-imaginations of the concept of reinforcement, including considerations of allocation, induction, and contingency
• Explorations of the links between behavior analysis and Darwinian evolutionary processes

An essential critique—and reorganization—of behavior theory and philosophy, Science and Philosophy of Behavior: Selected Papers is a controversial, fascinating, and eye-opening journey through a half-century of transformational work in the field.

William M Baum is Professor Emeritus at the University of New Hampshire and a Research Associate at University of California, Davis. He taught for seven years at Harvard University and for more than twenty years at the University of New Hampshire. He has published over one hundred journal articles. These have presented quantitative laboratory research, theoretical contributions, and philosophical contributions. His research interests include choice, cultural evolution, behavioural processes, and philosophy of behaviour. 

Part 1. Multiscale Behavior Analysis 

1. Baum, W. M. (1973). The correlation-based law of effect. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 20, 137-153

2. Baum, W. M. (1989). Quantitative prediction and molar description of the environment. The Behavior Analyst, 12, 167-176. 

3. Baum, W. M. (1997). The trouble with time. In L. J. Hayes & P. M. Ghezzi (eds.), Investigations in behavioral epistemology, Context Press.

4. Baum, W. M. (2002). From molecular to molar: A paradigm shift in behavior analysis. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 78, 95-116. 

5. Baum, W. M. (2003). The molar view of behavior and its usefulness in behavior analysis. The Behavior Analyst Today, 4, 78-81

6. Baum, W. M. (2004). Molar and molecular views of choice. Behavioural Processes, 66, 349-359.

7. Baum, W. M. (2012). Rethinking reinforcement: Allocation, induction, and contingency. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 97, 101-124.

8. Baum, W. M. (2016). Driven by Consequences: The multiscale molar view of choice. Decision and Managerial Economics, 37, 239-248. 

9. Baum, W. M. (2016). Reinforcement. In H. L. Miller (ed.), The SAGE Encyclopedia of Theory in Psychology. (Pp. 795-798). Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, Inc. 

10. Baum, W. M. (2020). Avoidance, induction, and the illusion of reinforcement. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 114, 116-141.

11.Baum, W. M. (2018). Multiscale Behavior analysis and molar behaviorism: An overview. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 110, 302-322.

12. Baum, W. M. (2021). Behavior, Process, and scale: Comments on Shimp (2020), "Molecular (moment-to-moment) and molar (aggregate) analyses of behavior." Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 115, 578-583. 



Part 2: Molar Behaviorism 

13. Baum, W. M. (1995). Radical Behaviorism and the concept of agency. Behaviorology, 3, 93-106

14. Baum, W. M. (2007). Commentary on Foxall, "Intentional Behaviorism" Behavior and Philosophy, 35, 57-60. 

15. Baum, W. M. (2011). Behaviorism, private events, and the molar view of behavior. The Behavior Analyst, 34, 185-200. 

16. Baum, W. M. (2017). Ontology for behavior analysis: Not realism, classes, or objects, but individuals and processes. Behavior and Philosophy, 45, 63-78. 

17. Baum, W. M. (2018). Berkeley, realism, and dualism: Reply to Hocutt's, "Berkeley resurrected: A commentary on Baum's 'Ontology for Behavior Analysis: Not realism, classes, or objects, but individuals and processes."" Behavior and Philosophy, 46, 58-62. 

18. Baum, W. M. (2018). What is suicide? Commentary on Pena Guzman on Animal suicide. Animal Sentience, 20(1). 

19. Baum, W. M. (2019). Relativity in hearing and stimulus discrimination. Perspectives on Behavioral Science, 42, 283-289. 



Part 3: Culture and Evolution

20. Baum, W. M. (1995). Rules, culture and fitness. The Behavior Analyst, 18, 1-21. 

21. Baum, W. M. (2000). Being concrete about culture and cultural evolution. In N.S. Thompson & F. Tonneau (eds.), Perspectives in ethology: Evolution, Culture and behavior, Vol 13 (pp. 181-212). New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers. 

22. Baum, W. M. (2017). Behavior analysis, Darwinian evolutionary processes, and the diversity of human behavior. In M. Tibayrenc & F. J. Ayala (Eds.), On Human Nature: Psychology, ethics, politics, and religion (pp. 397-415). New York: Academic Press.