Behaviorism and Reality

As a psychology major, I find some ideas of constructivism, especially radical constructivism, at an interesting conflict with the psychological theory of behaviorism. Behaviorism, for those who aren't familiar with the concept, is a branch of psychology that claims that all human behavior is learned through conditioning and observational learning. In other words, human knowledge and behavior results from external forces. They hold the idea that if you change a person's environment, you can also change their behavior. Extreme behaviorists go so far as to deny the idea of Consciousness or any true thought, claiming that they are all conditioned responses. 

Now, what does this have to do with constructivism? Constructivism is at the very core, the idea that things we believe to exist externally, are actually internal mental constructs projected on reality. Radical constructivism would hold the position that absolutely everything we perceive is a mental construct of our mind, especially ideas such as Good, Evil, Beauty, and Art. A radical taken a step further might be called a  solipsist.

These two branches of thought have some very strong arguments behind them, but, they seem to be mutually incompatible. Behaviorism lies on there being an external reality in which influences and affects our behavior. Constructivism argues for an internal reality that is independent of the objective world, especiallSo which one is right, or how can we make these two opposing theories compatible?

A potential solution that appears to me is the idea that One needs to be taught these ideas such as good and evil from an external source, but once it is learned, it is constantly created and projected onto the world at some points even unconsciously. If anyone has any other ideas on the relationship between these two subjects, I would be glad to hear them.

I don't care what you think, Pratchett is my Hero.

So, my possibly imagined reader, this week in my Creating Reality (CR) course, we talked about whether or not such a thing as Truth or Beauty was real. Throughout this entire week, this one scene from one of my favorite books has been playing through my head. The book is called The Hogfather, by Terry Pratchett. This book centered around Susan, the Granddaughter of Death (The anthropormic idea of death) trying to save her worlds version of Santa Claus, called the Hogfather. At the end, she has a meaningful conversation with her Grandfather about why humans must believe in the Hogfather and other beings such as the Tooth Fairy.

Here is an excerpt (Death is the one who speaks in capital letters):

“All right," said Susan. "I'm not stupid. You're saying humans need... fantasies to make life bearable."

REALLY? AS IF IT WAS SOME KIND OF PINK PILL? NO. HUMANS NEED FANTASY TO BE HUMAN. TO BE THE PLACE WHERE THE FALLING ANGEL MEETS THE RISING APE.

"Tooth fairies? Hogfathers? Little—"

YES. AS PRACTICE. YOU HAVE TO START OUT LEARNING TO BELIEVE THE LITTLE LIES.

"So we can believe the big ones?"

YES. JUSTICE. MERCY. DUTY. THAT SORT OF THING.

"They're not the same at all!"

YOU THINK SO? THEN TAKE THE UNIVERSE AND GRIND IT DOWN TO THE FINEST POWDER AND SIEVE IT THROUGH THE FINEST SIEVE AND THEN SHOW ME ONE ATOM OF JUSTICE, ONE MOLECULE OF MERCY. AND YET— Death waved a hand. AND YET YOU ACT AS IF THERE IS SOME IDEAL ORDER IN THE WORLD, AS IF THERE IS SOME... SOME RIGHTNESS IN THE UNIVERSE BY WHICH IT MAY BE JUDGED.

"Yes, but people have got to believe that, or what's the point—"

MY POINT EXACTLY.”

You can also watch the clip of this scene from the movie adaptation here. (Very funny and dramatic. I highly recommend watching the entire movie)

       Pratchett brings up an interesting idea, which is: Humans, in order to function in life, and live to their fullest capabilities, need fantasies, need these lies like justice, mercy, and things such as right and wrong in order to function. Can a human be a human without the idea of mercy, or justice, or good, or evil? He completely dismisses the idea that such things actually exist independent of the mind and goes on to believe that this willingness to create such concepts is what causes humanity to live to their fullest. I agree with this idea. Although there might not be justice except in our mind, it is what heightens our status beyond the 'base animal' level. What do you guys think? Can we be human without these concepts we make up to function every day?