Behaviorism inherited physics’ faith that mathematics discloses universal laws of human behavior

Evidence

Meyer had pursued his doctoral studies at the University of Berlin, where his dissertation advisor, Max Planck, was destined to become one of the most celebrated physicists of all time. Planck insisted on the unity of the physical world and the discoverability of the natural laws that would disclose their secrets only through mathematical analysis, including the laws of human behavior. “The outside world is something independent from man, something absolute,” Planck wrote. “The quest for the laws which apply to this absolute appeared… as the most sublime scientific pursuit in life.” Meyer carried Planck’s teaching into his quest for the principles that would finally elevate the study of human behavior to true scientific status. — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1149

Categorization

• XREF: Plank’s ‘outside world is something absolute’ resonates with the naive realism critique in communication/media theory. — connects to: Operationalism in physics parallels behaviorism in social science — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the…, 132; Early behaviorists saw knowledge requiring the forfeit of freedom — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1159
• QUESTION: Worth chasing: how directly did Planck’s insistence on mathematization of nature transmit into the quantitative ambitions of early 20th-century social psychology?

Broader Connections

• Operationalism in physics parallels behaviorism in social science #expands (0.85) — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 132
• Early behaviorists saw knowledge requiring the forfeit of freedom #corroborates (0.73) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1159