Behaviorism is based on the stimulus-response theory that a stimulus will cause a response either by pairing a response with a reflective trigger (e.g., salivating to a bell that was paired with food); or rewarding a response in the presence of a stimulus (e.g., pressing a bar that releases a pellet of food). However, people think and we have beliefs. So our reactions are based upon what we are thinking and believing in at the time of the stimulus. For example, smoke might send us running out of the building if we believe it is a fire, running into the building if we have been trained to fight fires, or remaining calm and in the building if we believe that someone has simply burnt some toast.

Behaviorism is based upon the premiss that if we change the environment (stimulus), a learner will follow (response) along like simple puppets. Skinner once described goals and purposes as being similar to a missile's homing device in that it uses information (feedback) from the target to guide it and this feedback is not reinforcement. Thus, since the feedback is not reinforcement, the missile's behavior can have no real purpose. The behavioral "illusion" that he was trying to show was that the missile's behavior is caused strictly by the environment. He used an extremely illogical approach in his reasoning on subject.

A necessary ingredient for life is the ability to achieve a degree of independence (autonomy) from the external environment. Thus, the normal cause-effect relationships found in non-living systems no longer hold true for life.

What we perceive does not control us. It is our reference levels that originate within us that control our perceptions. Unlike non-living control systems, such as homing devices, cruise control systems, and thermostats that are controlled by the environment, a living system is controlled from within itself.