Herbert, J. D., & Padovani, F. (2015). Breaking the ontology taboo: Reply to Monestès and Villatte. Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science, 4, 235–236. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcbs.2015.10.004
Monestès and Villatte take issue with our contention that, contra strong claims of “a-ontology” associated with functional contextualism, science requires the assumption of a world, independent of our theories of it, with its own specific character. However, their primary criticism confounds the goals of science and associated criteria to evaluate those goals on the one hand with the forces that shape the behavior of the phenomena of interest on the other. We clarify this and other issues, and stand by our criticisms of stronger versions of a-ontology.
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