Jamesian Philosophy Refreshed

  As comic book guy might say, "Worst. Acronym. Ever." MoND refers to a theory in physics, especially cosmology and astrophysics, that suggests that there is no real need to posit "dark matter". The case for dark matter has always been that the amount of observable matter in galaxies is not enough to understand how fast galaxies rotate.  Either our views of gravity or our views of mass must change to cover these rotations. MoND opts for changing the view of gravity, rather than postulating vast quantities of mass.  Here is Sabine Hossenfelder's explanation of the point.  https://backreaction.blogspot.com/?fbclid=IwAR0Eild3WJDSYbL1NjgSjMsmenRUf6wbPy9HQE7DEkIrfLnlxHbvzp0g9Xc    Advocates of Modified Newtonian Dynamics propose changes of the Newtonian theory of gravity. Of course, the Einstein revolution did already modify Newton.  The point though was that another differently-motivated modification will be necessary, and that scientists from six score ye...

Someone recently asked me, as a sort of rhetorical exercise, if I could make the best possible case for behavorism. By  behaviorism my friend and I both understood the same thing, the view that mind is only a name for the collection of predictable behaviors exhibited by certain physical organisms, and that it is confused or just meaningless to speak of a mind as some sort of entity inside of or transcending that organism, and directing its actions. To be clear, my friend and I both reject behaviorism so understood, but the challenge was to make the best case I could for it anyway. As someone who once trained in the art of advocacy, I found the challenge irresistable. I answered that I would in that case make three points: 1. Behaviorists are the knights of Ockham's razor. They want to eliminate entities that are  unnecessary and non-explanatory from scientific discussion. Suppose we see a boy standing in front of a strawberry bush. He plucks and eats...