ABSTRACT:
Although promoting overcoming metaphysical dualism, the concept of private event does not have a consensual and uncritical development in behavior-analytic approach of subjective phenomena. The debate among advocates and critics of the concept, however, has not satisfactorily touch an important issue: the notion of privacy as inaccessibility to stimuli promotes the link of this proposal with philosophical presuppositions incompatible with the radical behaviorism. This paper presents critical arguments towards overcoming the notion of privacy and the concept of private event, presenting alternative analysis. One questions the connection between observation and interpretation present in the public-private distinction, proposing the replacement of the concept of privacy by the notion of complexity.
Keywords
private event; subjective phenomena; radical behaviorism