This is a PowerPoint file I used when teaching my Skinner's Behaviorism graduate course here at Western Michigan University. I used it at the end of the class when students' heads were swimming with words like ontology, epistemology, contextualism, truth criteria, theory, philosophy, etc. and wondering what the hell the purpose and relevance of it all was. :) It was sort of my attempt to summarize the role and importance of theory and philosophy in behavior analysis. I should note that this was presented at the end of the course, and summarizes key issues we had been discussing and reading about all semester. It is probably less effective as a first-time introduction to these topics. Much of the content of the slideshow is based on Steve Hayes's work, and some of the examples are blatantly stolen from lectures he gave in an applied research methods course I took with him at the University of Nevada. I'm a damn academic bandit. A pedagogical pilferer. A scholarly shoplifter. A pedantic plunderer. A person who needs to get more sleep before posting weird things to this website.
