Science and Human Behavior, Chapter 13: Function versus Aspect, Quote 9

“Trait-names usually begin as adjectives—”intelligent,” “aggressive,” “disorganized,”  “angry,” “introverted,” “ravenous,” and so on—but the almost inevitable linguistic result is that adjectives give birth to nouns. The things to which these nouns refer are then taken to be the active causes of the aspects . . . But at no point in such a series do we make contact with any event outside the behavior itself which justifies the claim of a causal connection.” (p. 202)

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