Private events: a conceptual reconstruction

Abstract

In this article, we critically analyse the Skinnerian account of private events and proceed to conceptually reconstruct private events in the light of recent empirical findings in the research on derived relational responding, verbal behaviour, and relational frame theory. We consider private events as singular or specific events, observable to a second individual, radically construed in the same exercise as social arbitrary practices, and consisting essentially of verbal behaviour. Thus, problems such as the causal status or stimulus nature of private events, or the issue of their observability are radically treated as non-sense problems.