ABSTRACT
All forms of behaviourism identify mental states with behaviours or behavioural dispositions. Thus it might be that the desire to eat ice cream is identified with ice-cream-eating behaviour, or a disposition to eat ice cream. Methodological behaviourism is the doctrine that was most prevalent in empirical psychology. Mental language should be retained, however, because it does not refer to nonexistent mental states, but instead refers to behaviours or tendencies to behave. According to analytical behaviourism, careful analysis of mental language reveals that mental state terms must refer to behaviours or behavioural dispositions. The mature version of behaviourism that can cope with the failure-of-supervenience objection holds that psychological claims can be analysed in terms of behavioural dispositions. If psychological states cause behaviour, then the connexion between psychological states and behaviour is essentially contingent. Behaviourists who retreated to dispositions never intended to retreat to categorical states.
