Palabras clave: anti-descriptivismo, normatividad, empirismo mínimo, psicología ecológica.
Abstract: The main purpose of this essay is to gather diverse theoretical approaches to develop an anti-representationalist alternative to the classical cognitive approach to the study of the perception-cognition-action triad. In this respect, the contributions of radical behaviorism to this endeavor are specially highlighted. Drawing from an anti-factualist and anti-descriptivist approach, several ways to conceptualize the cognitive are analyzed according to two fundamental distinctions: the personal/subpersonal distinction (levels of explanation) and the normative/nomological distinction (types of explanation). The discussion is structured around three convergent strategies: the union of perception and action, the union of cognition and action and the union of perception and cognition. The main findings are the following: a) the alliance between ecological psychology and radical behaviorism offers an appropriate nomological framework for the study of the agent-environment interaction; b) despite the irreducibility of the mental vocabulary that we employ for the rational justification of behavior, there are certain facts -traditionally considered as cognitive- that allow for an explanation in behavioral terms (i.e., covert phenomena and the verbal and non-verbal monitoring of behavior); c) experience is pervious to the exercise of our rational faculties; and d) rationality is someway related to the verbal and non-verbal monitoring processes of behavior.
Key words: anti-descriptivism, normativity, minimal empiricism, ecological psychology.