Beyond Freedom and Dignity"In this profound and profoundly challenging book, the great behaviorist B.F. Skinner, regarded by many as the most influential and controversial living psychologist, author also of the celebrated utopian novel Walden Two, makes his definitive statement about man and society. Insisting that the frightening problems we face in the world today can be solved only by dealing much more effectively with human behavior, Skinner argues that our traditional concepts of freedom and dignity must be sharply revised. They have played an important historical role in man's struggle against many kinds of tyranny, he acknowledges, but they are now responsible for the futile defense of a free and worthy autonomous man; they are perpetuating our use of punishment and are blocking the development of more effective cultural practices. Basing his arguments on the massive results of the experimental analysis of behavior in which he pioneered, he rejects traditional explanations of behavior in terms of states of mind, feelings, and other mental attributes in favor of explanations to be sought in an individual's genetic endowment and personal history. He tells why, instead of promoting freedom and dignity as personal attributes, we should direct our attention to the physical, and social environments in which people live. It is the environment that must be changed rather than man himself if the traditional goals of the struggle for freedom and dignity are to be reached. A technology of behavior able to solve our problems by effectively changing the world in which people live will, in its turn, raise frightening questions. Will men become robots? Or victims? Or merely passive spectators? Who is to design that brave new world of the future? Can we count on his benevolence, or will a technology of behavior necessarily mean a new kind of tyranny? These and many other questions concerning so-called "value judgments" are squarely faced. The book forces us to look afresh at ideals we have taken for granted and to consider the possibility of a scientific approach which, though it may at first seem incompatible with those ideals, will enable us to avoid the destruction toward which we are now speeding and ultimately to build a world in which mankind may reach its greatest possible achievements."--Jacket. |
From inside the book
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Page 131
... cultures . A culture is a set of prac- tices , but it is not a set which cannot be mixed with other sets . We tend to associate a culture with a group of people . People are easier to see than their behavior , and behavior is easier to ...
... cultures . A culture is a set of prac- tices , but it is not a set which cannot be mixed with other sets . We tend to associate a culture with a group of people . People are easier to see than their behavior , and behavior is easier to ...
Page 133
... culture has evolved in a similar process , why not a master culture ? It is true that people do kill each other , and often because of practices which seem to define cultures . One govern- ment or form of government competes with ...
... culture has evolved in a similar process , why not a master culture ? It is true that people do kill each other , and often because of practices which seem to define cultures . One govern- ment or form of government competes with ...
Page 143
... culture which induces some of its mem- bers to work for its survival brings an even more remote consequence to bear . The task of the cultural designer is to accelerate the development of practices which bring the remote conse- quences ...
... culture which induces some of its mem- bers to work for its survival brings an even more remote consequence to bear . The task of the cultural designer is to accelerate the development of practices which bring the remote conse- quences ...
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Common terms and phrases
admired aggressive attributed autonomous aversive consequences avoid B. F. Skinner become behave biological C. S. Lewis called chap child concerned conspicuous contingen contingencies of reinforcement countercontrol cultural evolution depends economic effective environmental Eric Robertson Dodds escape ethical evolved example experimental analysis explain fact feelings freedom and dignity genetic endowment give havior human behavior important individual induce inner J. F. C. Fuller Joseph Wood Krutch kind Krutch less literature of freedom maieutics ment mind moral natural nomic organism personal reinforcers physics and biology positive reinforcement possible practices problem psychotherapy punishable behavior punitive contingencies reasons religion religious responsible rules scientific analysis scientist sense sexual simply social contingencies social environment solve stimuli student superego survival value teacher technology of behavior theory things tingencies tion traditional utopian verbal verbal behavior vironment wrong