ABSTRACT
Opponents to Burrhus Frederic Skinner's view have argued that, whatever the fate of teleological thinking in biology, humans keep manifesting their intentions, as is conspicuous from their verbal statements of future actions. Skinner's position has often been epitomised as 'black-box psychology'. Brain sciences have been developing in so fascinating a way during the last decades that Skinner's refusal to look into the black box now appears obsolete. The alleged black-box approach had classically been attributed to Skinner's naivete in biological matters. Skinner's claim was that psychologists should work at their own levels of analysis, i.e. behaviour, because behaviour is one essential aspect of living organisms. And because, therefore, other sciences engaged in the study of living organisms, such as neurophysiology, neurochemistry and neuropharmacology, cannot progress unless descriptions of behaviour compare in rigour and refinement with descriptions of events at their respective level of analysis.
