Some of the ontological and epistemological underpinnings of behavioral and existential systems of psychology were examined with the aim of elucidating neglected parallels and affinities between them. The philosophical presuppositions of both behaviorism and existentialism share an inclination toward nominalism and an opposition to subjectivism. Both orientations view action in the world as the basic material out of which any conceptualization of the human must be built. Each approach, in its own way, attempts to encompass both freedom and determinism.
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