Our reinforcers are or become our values. The stimuli in various contingencies evoke our claims that we have rights regarding unrestricted access to these values, these reinforcers. Next, ethics involve the respecting of our rights claims for unobstructed access to our valued reinforcers.
What is death and how can the terminally ill receive better, more scientifically informed care that helps them retain their dignity during the dying process? Understanding death and enhancing dignified dying provide good starting points.
The question concerns life’s meaning. What is the meaning of life? This column also attempts answers which, though different, also may not seem satisfactory, at least to some people.
Before considering several aspects of consciousness that involve reviewing realities “inside the skin,” we first review a little about pre–scientific views of consciousness. While these arose in the past, many continue in the present.
That abstract status of morals, as verbal stimuli, somewhat divorces them from the contingencies that generate them. This can lead to problems just as rules that no longer reflect the contingencies that they describe—because the contingencies have changed—can lead to problems.
This column begins our coverage of initial scientific answers to some of humanity’s ancient but as yet inadequately answered questions. Like love, back in column 27 of the first set, these topics face traditional opposition to the notion that science can address them. A sequence of topics becomes our first focus. The full interrelated sequence covers reinforcers, values, rights, ethics, and morals.
Welcome to more columns scientifically exploring some of the mysteries of life and living, especially the behavior–related mysteries. Welcome to “more” columns, because this new set of columns follows an earlier set that was titled simply “Exploring Mysteries of Living.”
