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The place of behavior analysis in the contemporary scientific debate

Science has experienced several changes in the course of history. The contemporary scientific-philosophical field is witnessing a new change: the crisis in the modern science model and the emerging of a different scientific proposal, the post-modern science. Skinner affirmed that Behavior Analysis and its philosophy, Radical Behaviorism, are able to enlighten the discourse of philosophy of science. Nevertheless, Skinner's work permits discussing not only the modern science model but the post-modern as well. This text intends to examine some philosophical commitments (ontological, epistemological and ethical) of the diverse Skinnerian scientific proposals in order to clarify possibilities of placing Behavior Analysis in this debate.

modern and post-modern sciences; Skinnerian science; empiricism; positivism; pragmatism; Darwinism; ethics


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