Some preliminary notes on utopianism, postmodernism and behavior analysis

ABSTRACT

As a science with its foundation in the twentieth century and its immediate future in the twenty-first, behavior analysis encompasses the common tensions of the history and the philosophy of contemporary sciences. Several authors identify a crisis in the current epistemological field: the decline of the modern science model, and the rise of a postmodern kind of science. As a matter of fact, the so-called “postmodern discourse” seems to involve a broader project, with issues that go beyond the purely scientific field, reaching ethical and political concerns. What is the place of behavior analysis in this scenario? This article presents a brief review of arguments on the position of behavior analysis in the debate between modern and postmodern trends of science, with special focus on the postmodern ones. Two topics will be specifically addressed: the abandonment of determinism and the distrust towards metanarratives. These two features of postmodern discourse are crucial for the relations between utopianism and behavior analysis. Two different views on science, modern and postmodern, can possibly guide behavioral technology and cultural design in different ways. Therefore, some reflections about the relation between behavior analysis and utopian thinking are also presented.

KEYWORDS:

• Behaviour analysis
• postmodernism
• utopianism
• determinism
• metanarratives

Acknowledgments

I thank Julio de Rose, my PhD advisor, for the valuable suggestions. This manuscript benefited greatly from the observations and recommendations by two anonymous reviewers on an earlier version of this work.

Additional information

Funding

Preparation of this manuscript was supported by the São Paulo State Research Foundation (FAPESP), through a doctoral fellowship granted to the author [FAPESP, Grant 2014/02981-1].