This is ingenious but seems like speculation largely detached from evidence. In particular, if you want to be believed then you might do well to offer better grounds for saying …
It is speculation, and I don’t want to be believed. I want to float the idea that this is one aspect of behaviorism, and that even a scientific theory can be hijacked by what we want to believe.
OK, I’ll strengthen it: If you want to be taken seriously then you should consider doing those things. Because on the face of it, it seems like (1) you’ve got this frankly rather crazy theory suggesting that behaviourist ideas are commonly motivated by a quasi-religious horror of the idea that mental states might be reducible, (2) typical behaviourists’ thinking was pretty much the opposite of that, and (3) you’ve given no actual reason why your crazy-looking theory is at all likely to be right.
I’ve given enough reasons to suggest the ideas are plausible, which is all that is needed for a discussion, which is what we do in the DIscussion section.
I agree that it should be acceptable to pose hypotheses that one thinks are more likely to be false than to be true. There are ways to make it clearer that that is what one is doing.
It is speculation, and I don’t want to be believed. I want to float the idea that this is one aspect of behaviorism, and that even a scientific theory can be hijacked by what we want to believe.
OK, I’ll strengthen it: If you want to be taken seriously then you should consider doing those things. Because on the face of it, it seems like (1) you’ve got this frankly rather crazy theory suggesting that behaviourist ideas are commonly motivated by a quasi-religious horror of the idea that mental states might be reducible, (2) typical behaviourists’ thinking was pretty much the opposite of that, and (3) you’ve given no actual reason why your crazy-looking theory is at all likely to be right.
I’ve given enough reasons to suggest the ideas are plausible, which is all that is needed for a discussion, which is what we do in the DIscussion section.
I agree that it should be acceptable to pose hypotheses that one thinks are more likely to be false than to be true. There are ways to make it clearer that that is what one is doing.