Reflections on metacontingency and adjacent concepts: origin, reduction and emergence

• Grant number: 13/17950-1
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: December 01, 2013
• End date: October 28, 2015
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Psychology - Fundamentals and Assessments in Psychology
• Principal Investigator: Kester Carrara
• Grantee: Diego Zilio Alves
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências (FC). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Bauru. Bauru , SP, Brazil

Abstract

There is no consensus regarding the pertinence and utility of the model for the explanation of social phenomena based upon the concept of "metacontingency": the analogy between natural and cultural selection, proposed by Skinner and developed by Glenn, would be problematic; the concept of "metacontingency" would not be necessary in the explanation of social phenomena; the model would not be parsimonious, since it complicates the analysis. On the other hand, it is said that "metacontingency" is relevant because it embraces another "kind" of selection beyond natural and operant selection. Therefore, despite being emergent on operant processes, cultural selection would not be reducible to operant selection. We think that these discussions bring up questions that demand not only empirical, but theoretical work as well. That being so, the goals of this research are: (a) to discuss the origin and development of the concept of "metacontingency" by comparing it with the concept of operant. In addition to promote conditions for clarifying the meaning of "metacontingency" and of its auxiliary concepts, this activity is also a way for discussing its problems; and (b) to discuss the nature of the relation between contingency and metacontingency in the context of the second and third kinds of selection. This analysis will have two main topics: the idea that the third level of selection is emergent on the second level of selection and the idea that cultural selection is irreducible to operant selection. Reduction and emergence are two of main topics in Philosophy of Science. Thus, this literature will be used in the discussion regarding the second and third kinds of selection. (AU)

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

ZILIO, DIEGO. Who, What, and When: Skinner's Critiques of Neuroscience and His Main Targets. BEHAVIOR ANALYST, v. 39, n. 2, p. 197-218, OCT 2016. (13/17950-1, 09/18324-1)

ZILIO, DIEGO. On the Autonomy of Psychology From Neuroscience: A Case Study of Skinner's Radical Behaviorism and Behavior Analysis. REVIEW OF GENERAL PSYCHOLOGY, v. 20, n. 2, p. 155-170, JUN 2016. (13/17950-1, 09/18324-1)

ZILIO, DIEGO; CARRARA, KESTER; LEITE, FELIPE LUSTOSA. Pragmatic Reductionism: On the Relation between Contingency and Metacontingency. BEHAVIOR AND SOCIAL ISSUES, v. N/A, p. 35-pg., 2022-06-08. (13/17950-1)