Word: skinnerism
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Nevertheless. B.F. Skinner's example of past successes of his concepts [Sept. 20] fail to impress me. I cannot comment on mental hospitals, jails or business firms, but as one of this nation's secondary-school students, I can testify that his principles have failed in the high schools of at least one average-sized community. For one thing, students recognize attempts to alter their behavior and meet them with resentment comparable to that created by punishment. Furthermore, if incentives are at all successful, the reward situation soon becomes the norm, deviations from which are interpreted as punishment...
...seems to me he may have his values confused! I for one would rather take a chance on Skinner's hell...
...Unfortunately many people like Theologian Rubenstein will respond in much the same manner as Galileo's contemporaries. If Rubenstein calls Professor Skinner's Utopian projection the blueprint for the theory and practice of hell, what does he consider war, poverty, racism, overpopulation and pollution to be? Heaven possibly...
...span of a few decades, Skinner's "behavioral technology" has repeatedly proved itself more fruitful than alternatives at improving the human condition. I suggest that the free-will and determinism positions be evaluated in terms of their tangible consequences...
...Skinner is right, of course, provided that man was not created "a little less than the angels" but rather just a bit more than the insects...