LOVE AND DESPRECIO: SKINNER AND KANT

The distance between an event causing a reaction and the response to that event cannot be reduced to a behaviorist cause-effect Skinnerian relationship. A post Kantian approach to the study of perceptions and processing information, external stimuli is required. “Despreciar” is to be devalued, and when one expects a person who is always saying, “You know, I love you”, to treat you with respect and love as they claim, but do not as they -through other actions- “devalue you”, the pain is greater than it would be if an unimportant “Juan de la Calle” is the one who “desprecia.” Humans are neither pigeons nor rats. Some people develop a thick skin and are able to separate themselves completely from the actions of others, even from those with whom they have very close relationships: lovers, relatives, friends. Others, not necessarily so. And when it happens, the sensation -be a feeling of betrayal, dishonesty, like a piece on a board game, losing trust- comes back until one says with an exclamation tone, “again!”.  Then, when it repeats itself so often, hearing them saying, "you know I love you", one says without the exclamation mark, "again." The perception gradually changes, and so does the response. In literature, Marcel Proust, Anais Nin, Angeles Mastretta, Fernando Vallejo, Marguerite Duras are known for having documented the changes in their emotions and thoughts, and their responses to external events that have affected them one way or another; and so have I in this blog. Independent of the methods used or guiding paradigms, they were never Skninnerian, but fundamentally Kantian.