B.F. SKINNER AND BEHAVIORISM

Ronald F. White, Ph.D.Professor of Philosophy

College of Mount St. Joseph

INTRODUCTION• Themes in this Course so Far

– The nature of the individual in relationship to the state– The nature of classes and/or “social groupings”– The nature of political leadership– The nature and direction of human history

• Mechanism and Historicism• Progress or regress

– Power and Knowledge– Rationalism v. Empiricism– Idealism v. Realism– The Nature of work as a human activity– Economic Theory and Politics

• Classical Economics• Marxism

NEW THEMES • Science and Human Nature

– Explain, Predict, Control• Scientific Realism

– Truth as Correspondence– Scientific Method

• Nature v. Human Nature– Nature v. Nurture– Evolution

• Biological Evolution (genes)• Cultural Evolution (ideas or memes)

– Freudianism– Relativity Theory– Quantum Theory

• Role of Science in Human Affairs– Rise of Logical Positivism

• Material Reduction• Mechanism

– Free Will v. Determinism

A SCIENCE OF BEHAVIOR

• Rise of Behaviorism– Critique of traditional psychology– Psychology is the “Science of Behavior” NOT Mind– Explain, Predict, Control Human Behavior without relying on

non-empirical components like mind. – The “Black Box”– Pavlov’s dogs– Reflex-

• B.F. Skinner– Pigeons– Skinner Box

SKINNER’S POLITICAL VIEWS

• Human Flourishment• The Controlled Society– Walden II