Abstract

Behavior analysts often engage in conceptual revisions for the purpose of obtaining a more precise and scientific language. Examples of such revisions occur in discussions of punishment, treatment, and extinction. The later philosophy of Wittgenstein provides a perspective for assessing the consequences of these revisions. From that point of view they are revealed to involve a misleading change in subject matter from that which the terms in question ordinarily designate. Wittgenstein's philosophy also shows that the conceptual revisions can make no claim to superiority over the ordinary uses of these terms. These general philosophical lessons are applied to the recent proposal made by Harzem and Miles for a precise behavioral language. Finally, appeal to a psychological functional analysis shows who conceptual revisions will lead to confusion both among behavior analysts and between them and the general audiences to whom they often address themselves