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...