Behavior and Philosophy, 41, 70-75 (2013). ©2015 Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies 65 WHY I AM NOT A RADICAL BEHAVIORIST João Claudio Todorov Universidade de Brasília ABSTRACT: Watson set the initial parameters for a science of behavior. The experimental analysis of behavior as developed by Skinner still has much work to do before claiming to be the science of behavior. The cultural environment has been shaping the behavior of behavior analysts in different directions. Emphasis on methods rather than theory has resulted in variants that make communication among them difficult or nonexistent. Key words: radical behaviorism, science, variation, evolution Why am I not a radical behaviorist? Because I am a behavior analyst living and working in the 21 st Century. I am as good a behaviorist as all those colleagues who identify themselves as radical behaviorists, but “radical” was an adjective used by Skinner some 70 years ago to separate his behaviorism from other kinds in vogue at the time. “Logical,” “methodological,” and so on, are adjectives we use when teaching history. We don’t explain a thing by qualifying “behaviorism”, we create a problem to be explained to the unlearned. We are proud of the Skinnerian tradition, but we live in the second decade of another century. Behavior analysis today is a set of cultural practices shaped and maintained by a cultural environment Those practices evolved from a set of rules first systematized by Watson. One hundred years of behaviorism led to a variety of species of this family, of which some underwent extinction while others dissolved into other families through crossbreeding (e.g., cognitive behavior therapy). The crossbreeding of behaviorism was so successful that today behavior is a concept used by all of psychology (e.g., Roediger, 2004). Some candidates to new breeds of a new, or modern, behaviorism have been presented recently (e.g., Baum, 2005, 2013; Moore, 2013; Rachlin, 2013; Staddon, 2001, 2013). Oscillations in the Earth’s climate in past millenniums are mentioned as factors in speciation, a process linked to the development of new species originating from a common ancestor (e.g., Haffer, 1969; Vanzolini & Williams, 1981). The astounding variability in the Amazon fauna, for instance, has been attributed to long periods of dry weather alternating with rainy periods. Dry climate divided the huge forest into small forested islands linked by non-forest vegetation. A given forest species lived separated in colonies for centuries. Geographic separation led to a divergent evolutionary development. Behavior analysis may be undergoing a similar “evolution”: For years I had had a sublime faith that the truth would prevail. I was quite content to get to my papers into print somewhere; those who needed them would find them. (It was a useful principle, for it permitted me to continue working in