The Beer/Bethe/Uexküll paper (1899) and misinterpretations surrounding 'vitalistic behaviorism'.

Abstract

In the history of behaviorism the paper of the three physiologists Theodor Beer, Albrecht Bethe and Jakob von Uexküll from 1899 plays an important role. Many researchers were influenced by this paper and identified it as fundamental for objective psychological research. But during the period of its adoption (1900-1925) psychologists did not notice that Beer, Bethe and Uexküll had distanced themselves from their own paper, because it had been ignored in physiological and biological discussions. Moreover, one of the three (Beer) had to resign from the scientific community because of private scandal and another one (Uexküll) changed all of his views and left the base of objective science for subjective vitalism. However, this did not change his adoption of behaviorism.