A STUDY ON DEFINITIONS OF BEHAVIOR

Abstract

In this paper, I attempt to: (1) distinguish and clarify some different senses of the notion of behavior, with emphasis upon that of behavior as the occurrence of an organism’s action or reaction; (2) identify the types of definition possibly suitable for the notion taken in this sense and for theoretical proposals; (3) devise a list of desiderata for the types of definition picked out; (4) make a critical survey of several (to wit, twelve) definitions of behavior ? more specifically, definitions that have that sense of the concept as definiendum ? found in the scientific and philosophical literature; and (5) suggest a modified version of two of them. Keywords: behavior; definitions of behavior; definitions; teleology; action; conceptual analysis.