Behaviorism and Phenomenology.

This symposium is one of the Rice University Semicentennial Series. Pitted against each other are the philosophical positions of B. F. Skinner, R. B. MacLeod, and Carl R. Rogers each presented by their respective authors. To round out the discussion and to provide an oft-strident accompaniment to the themes are papers by S. Koch, N. Malcolm, and M. Scriven. "Is behaviorism outmoded and therefore to be totally rejected as a starting point for psychological inquiry? The papers in this argumentative examination of the places of behaviorism and phenomenology in psychology disclose a surprising degree of conciliation between the two." So alleges the book jacket. It is not too many years ago when the fashion was to debate the relative contributions of the various schools of psychology, structuralism, functionalism, gestalt, psychoanalysis, behaviorism, etc. Adherents of each school espoused underlying philosophies of psychology which then appeared irreconcilable. Today, there is not