An indeterminate and expansive world

Roberts, M.K. / Published 2010 / Article

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Citation: Roberts, M.K. (2010). An indeterminate and expansive world. In K. E. Davis, F. Lubuguin, & W. Schwartz (Eds.), Advances in Descriptive Psychology: Vol. 9 (pp. 231-256). Ann Arbor, MI: Descriptive Psychology Press.

Abstract: The real world is a behavioral world, a totality in which forms of behavior are taken as ultimate, in contrast to worlds in which physical objects, numbers, etc. are taken as ultimate. It is an indeterminate totality, in that we can create new behaviors that change the structure and complexity of everything. The boundary condition for the real world is reality, and the basic form of scientific empiricism is reality-based rather than real-world-based. From a reality-based perspective, acting on phenomena like imaginary numbers and imaginary companions makes sense, and so does acting on scientific theories that later turn out to be imaginary.