An Axiomatic Approach to Human Behavior

Abstract

Since Euclid's development, the axiomatic method has appealed to a limited number of non-mathematicians. These include Newton’s laws of motion, Spinoza’s The Ethics, and the political philosophy represented in the United States Declaration of Independence. In psychology, the notable efforts have been those of Hull and more recently of Smedslund. However, none of these examples have stated the premises in symbolic logic notation. An illustrative set of postulates for human behavior is presented in which only the relationships---“not”, “and”, “or” and “implies”--are employed. These propositions include basic concepts such as anxiety, aggression, and identification and fundamental empirical results, for example, the basic law of effect of Thorndike. The model then capitalizes on Muncaster’s PropCalc which provides a computer analysis of a set of propositions expressed in symbolic notation for their consistency and redundancy. The procedure also provides a basic set of deductions implied by the propositions. Examples of conclusions derived from the model are presented and limitations of the prototypical model are discussed. The focus of the paper is on illustrating the utility of the axiomatic approach for theory development in psychology.