Walden Two
Skinner, following in the footsteps of John B. Watson, believed the final goal of behaviorism, and ultimately psychology was "the prediction and control of behavior"(Benjamin, 1997, p.396). Of course, with this prediction and control of behavior there comes some important philosophical questions such as, who will be the controllers of behavior, what behaviors will be controlled, which ones will not, and finally, will this control be to our advantage or do we lose our freedom? This mode of thinking is where B.F. Skinner tries to make his far-reaching contribution to society as a whole. Skinner believes that with the discovery of operant conditioning and use of behaviorist theory that a new utopian society can be created. In his books such as, Reflections on Behaviorism and Society, The Technology of Teaching, and most directly in Walden Two, Skinners tries to address some of the philosophical questions raised by behaviorism and defend his hopes for utopia. Because Skinner's ide!as reach into the realm of moral philosophy he has come under some attack from both psychologists and philosophers. James McGraw, one of the many Skinner opponents, says that, "Such a Utopian society would undermine the values that many of us
. . .
Some common words found in the essay are:
Skinner1978p198 Skinner, Walden Revisited, Control Skinner, McGraw Skinner, John Watson, McGray1984p17 Skinner's, Walden Two-no, Lawrence Smith, Society Skinner, Benefits Utopia, loss freedom, utopian society, theory utopian society, skinner's theory, sense freedom, freedom individual, people induced, aware freedom, behaviorism society, society technology, community perfect, loss freedom individual,
Approximate Word count = 1194
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
|
 |
