Re.: PCT: Preface

CSGnet Archive CSG2013
1

From: D GOLDSTEIN davidmg@verizon.net
Date: July 3, 2013, 10:20:37 PM EDT
To: “Control Systems Group Network (CSGnet)” CSGNET@LISTSERV.ILLINOIS.EDU
Subject: Re.: PCT: Preface

[David Goldstein (2013.07.02.09j:15)]

Here are my answers to the study questions. I would love to see the answers of others who are following this course.

I love this quote from the preface, which is the main idea I believe:

“The conclusion we are led to by the thinking in this book is that there is mechanism in behavior—but it is not the mechanism the behaviors have in miind, for it is capable of having inner purposes in the full humanistic sense.â€?

Let’s start this course in a nice, relaxed manner by spending a week discussing the short Preface to B:CP. Even though it’s short, we believe the Preface is very important because it is the introduction to Powers’ theory of behavior that most people see first. It is probably the basis for people deciding whether to go ahead and read the whole book. So here are some questions to guide our discussion of the introduction.

  1. Who is the audience for this preface?
    Probably, Psychologists. However, I think that any person interested in how a person works would be interested.
  1. What do you see as the distinction between mechanism and humanism?
    Free will. A robot does not choose its own goals. A person selects his/her own goal.
  1. What point is Powers trying to make in the discussion of mechanism versus humanism?
    Humanists believe there is something special about humans that are not present in nonhumans. Humanists emphasize the
    active, purposeful nature of people.
  1. In the discussion of mechanism versus humanism the mechanistic approach is treated as being equivalent to behaviorism (“… there is mechanism in behavior – but it is not the mechanism the behaviorists have in mindâ€?). Since the “cognitive revolutionâ€? against behavior was in full force at the time B:CP was first published (1973) does the focus on behaviorism give the impression that the theory ignores current developments in psychology?
    I think it does. However, the negative feedback control system as the basic structural-functional unit proposes a mechanism that is very different than in cognitive psycology.
  1. What do you make of the discussion of the
    “Soul�, “Atman�, “Awareness�? What is being foreshadowed?
    The role of awareness in learning and development and “the observer self� is being foreshadowed.
  1. What is the point of saying in this Preface that “the theory nowhere predicts how a particular person will react to a particular event�? Can you think of examples of theories that do make such predictions?
    There are theories, for example, that predict whether a person will commit suicide given their standing on certain variables observable from the outside. Powers is emphasizing the inside experiences of a person and how outside variables disturb important experiences for a person.
  1. Similarly, what
    is the point of saying the theory is not “concerned with relating behavior to antecedent events�? Again, can you think of theories that are concerned with doing this?
    I think that this is a bit of an overstatement. We certainly have to know about antecedent events which are disturbances, don’t we?
  1. What do you think Powers means when he says that the model is “nearly devoid of specific behavioral content�?
    Powers’ PCT is a kind of blueprint for how the adult human works and how learning and development can produce this adult. It is not describing any particular person. It is describing all people, in general, in all contexts.

Comments on any or all of these points (and any others you can think of) will be the basis for discussion in the first week. The topics in the Preface clearly foreshadow much of what is coming in the book. However, people who are not already familiar with PCT may have a hard time understanding what is being foreshadowed. We hope that a discussion of the contents of the Preface will lead to the development of a primer of Powers aims in developing the theory described in B:CP, now known as Perceeptua Control Theory (PCT).

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