Search Forum:

Thanks for this question; actually, the exchanges following your initial question have been interesting in the best sense, and your question now is in the same league. Here's an analogy: Ptolemy and Copernicus had the same observational experiences: every morning "there is the sun" and every evening "there is the moon". All the same, what did "there" mean? As we know, quite a lot [geocentric/heliocentric universe]. Note well - Wittgenstein is good on this: the difference is non-observational in that you can't see the difference between a solar system in which the Earth is central and one in which the Sun is central from the Earth which in fact is where we are in making the observations in the first place. Your question now is about whether: it is possible to observe mental operations, i.e., that it is possible to dire al thinking, the mental activity (of the two children I gave as an example from the classification interviews) as it is occurring? Yes, acts of judgment are acts/actions central to which is a normative fact [fact: and any fact is] amenable to observation. For example, take Rosa Parks on a Montgomery bus "I don't think I should have to stand up", as she sat on bus seat, at that time prohibited to people with her skin colour, an action that led to the US Civil Rights protests. This is compelling: RP did something that others responded to on a national and international basis. No, you can't observe the norm corresponding to this fact. Nor [in the 19th century] could you observe the ether as that entity enabling the transmission of light waves. In the sequel, norms could turn o ut to be Right now: I doubt this, just because we all have notions as to what is right/wrong not only in morality, but also in logic/mathematics. Example: Take 1 + 1 = 1. Is that right or wrong? Yes in set theory;?No in the arithmetic of natural numbers;?and in common experience too [my grandson is a preschooler, and he has views about what is right/wrong in all manner of contexts - playing snakes and ladders, what is a fit food to eat, what is the right time to go to bed....] In short, observe as much as your method allows you to do, and then interpret your evidence in terms of an adequate theory. In?mine, norms are central; in behaviourism or in the cognitive psychology responsible for the notion of a strategy, norms are absent. Your call!