Resumo

RODRIGUES, Tyffanne Serra Paraná  e  DITTRICH, Alexandre. A dialogue between an orthodox christian and a radical behaviorist. Psicol. cienc. prof. [online]. 2007, vol.27, n.3, pp. 522-537. ISSN 1414-9893.

This article discusses religion by means of a dialogue between two fictitious characters: Tommaso, a radical behaviorist and defender of the skinnerian idea that religion is such a control agency as any other, and Gottlieb, an orthodox christian and a religiosity enthusiast. Tommaso's positions are based on an extensive revision about religion in the radical behaviorist literature, including all B. F. Skinner's books; in turn, texts favorable to religiosity, even if not all of them mention psychological theories, have Gottlieb as their spokesman. Besides being made of a comprehensive conceptual analysis of the behaviorist/skinnerian literature, this work - taking advantage of the dialogical method of exposition and, therefore, recreating dialectical discussions where Gottlieb is the occult interlocutor in the behaviorist texts which could show arguments similar to the ones raised by him - promotes new and distinct reflections about religion, contributing, this way, to a better elucidation of the present subject.

Palavras-chave : Religion; Radical behaviorism; Skinner; Orthodox christianity.

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