ABSTRACT
The philosophy of radical behaviorism derives from two sources: the pragmatism of C. S. Peirce and William James and evolutionary epistemology. From the first comes a kind of universalism that traces all knowledge to “successful working” and, from the second, its extension to “success in phylogeny.” All behaviorisms seem to require faith in at least the stability of nature if not her orderliness. A valuable axiom is that the “truth” of any proposition is relative to the challenges it has successfully met. Postmodern theorists have sniffed around the edges of radical behaviorism, but no acknowledged mating has yet taken place. Both schools would probably agree, however, that the scientific method itself evolves just like the knowledge it produces. The replication crisis that began in 2005 is an example.
