Paul Brandon wrote:
>
> >Btw,was Skinner a democrat,a republican or a behaviorist?
>
> A radical behaviorist.
> If he was a member of any organized political party (as opposed to
> Democrats ;-) I'm not aware of it.
That sounds reasonable. Interestingly, you can find things to please the
left and the right in his writings . In his 1986 American Psychologist
article "What is wrong with daily life in the western world?" (page 568-574)
he claims "Five cultural practices have eroded the contingencies of
reinforcement under which the human species evolved by promoting the pleasing
effects of the consequences of behavior at the expense of the strengthening
effects. These practices are (a) alientating workers from the consequences of
their work ..". That's leftist lingo, and socialists say the same thing
(socialists - contrary to stereotype, do not claim all workers should earn he
same, rather that what they earn should be _more_ closely tied work).
Further, his dabbling in utopian vision (Walden II, for instance) is a
leftist idea. The left claims mankind is perfectable, and government can play
a role perfecting people. The kibbutz and the kolholtz (russian collective)
were all founded around this key idea.
On the other hand, in his 1986 article, the second cultural practice he
criticizes is "(b) helping those who could help themselves .." Welfare,
obviously, is like giving a rat a food pellet for doing nothing.
I like to think he was a leftist (perhaps a borderline Marxist) who
avoided kee-jerk ideology in favor of discovering those practices that
actually work to improve the collective.
--
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John W. Kulig [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Department of Psychology http://oz.plymouth.edu/~kulig
Plymouth State College tel: (603) 535-2468
Plymouth NH USA 03264 fax: (603) 535-2412
---------------------------------------------------------------
"What a man often sees he does not wonder at, although he knows
not why it happens; if something occurs which he has not seen before,
he thinks it is a marvel" - Cicero.
