[From Rick Marken (950609.0920)]
Bruce Abbott (950608.1750 EST) --
Objection Your Honor. Counsel knows full well what "motive" means: the
value of some controlled variable is not at its reference state. Counsel is
attempting to deflect the argument from the issue at hand.
"Motive", like "behavior", is a fuzzy concept in conventional psychology.
However, the term "behavior" has a clear meaning in the context of PCT:
"behavior" refers to the process of controlling percpetual variables;
behavior IS the control of perception.
"Motive" can also be given a clear meaning in PCT but we have not spent much
time doing it because there are far better ways to describe the aspects of
control that are included in the meanings of "motive". To make sense,
"motive" must refer to several aspects of control simultaneously: perceptual
variable, reference state of that variable, error signal. So, when you say
"you don't know my motive" you might be saying that I don't know some or all
of these variables. I might, for example, know the perceptual variable you
are controlling but not its reference level.
In my answer to you I tried to explain that I do have a pretty good idea what
perception you are controlling and its reference level. I know what variable
you are controlling, by the way, because I am controlling the same variable,
which might be called the "relationship between PCT and conventional
theories of behavior". But we are controlling this variable relative to
different reference levels. That's why we are always getting into conflict;
your efforts (verbal and modelling) to bring your perception of the
relationship between PCT and conventional theories to its reference level
(which I would call "PCT is the correct theory and the other theories are
wrong") are a disturbance to my perception of the same variable because I am
controlling that variable relative to a different reference (which I would
call "PCT is the only theory of control;the other theories of behavior
explain a different -- and non-existant -- phenomenon).
Gary Cziko (950609.1450 GMT) --
We don't yet have the software to scan people's posts to CSGnet and reject
or correct those that are not consistent with the principles of PCT (or
redirect them to other psychology lists). But we are working on it and
when implemented Rick Marken will have a lot more free time on his hands.
That would be nice. Make sure there's a Mac version;-)
Best
Rick