CIM Briefing Papers

C.I.M. Outline #48

                 THE BEHAVIORISM OF B.F. SKINNER

I.  INTRODUCTION

    A.  The thought of men like Darwin, Marx, and Freud, changed
        the course of history.  It is probable that some day
        Skinner's name will be added to this list.  Carl Rogers
        said:

         "I believe that too few people are aware of the extent,
          the breadth and the depth of the advances which have
          been made in recent decades in the behavioral sciences. 
          Still fewer seem to be aware of the profound social,
          educational, political, economic, ethical, and
          philosophical problems posed by these advances."

    B.  Skinner's behavioral technology has been used to speed up
        animal learning, improve patient behavior in psychiatric
        wards, cure problems like bed-wetting and stuttering,    
        and improve human learning ability.

    C.  We should give attention to his thought because what he 
        has said is controversial and is accompanied by powerful
        implications.

        1.  Skinner's thought is controversial because his ideas
            represent a major departure from Western thought.  He
            says:

             "What is being abolished is autonomous man--the 
              inner, the homunculus, the processing demon, the
              man defended by the literatures of freedom and
              dignity.  His abolition has long been overdue. 
              Autonomous man is a device used to explain what we
              cannot explain in any other way.  He has been
              constructed from our ignorance, and as our
              understanding increases, the very stuff of which he
              is composed vanishes.  Science does not dehumanize
              man, it dehomunculizes him.  And it must do so if
              it is to prevent the abolition of the human
              species.  To man qua man we readily say good
              riddance.  Only by dispossessing him can we    
              turn to the real causes of human behavior.  Only 
              then can we turn from the inferred to the observed,
              from the miraculous to the natural, from the
              inaccessible to the manipulable."  (BEYOND FREEDOM
              AND DIGNITY, p.191).  (see also the excellent
              review of his thought in TIME, Sept.20, 1971. 
              "Panacea, or Path to Hell.")

        2.  Skinner's thought has powerful implications because 
            he has a plan of action, a plan to apply his
            technique to large-scale management of society.  (see
            his novel WALDEN II)

        3.  Skinner is most vulnerable philosophically because:

            a.  His technique works.  It therefore prompts us to
                ask philosophical questions.

            b.  He invites philosophical criticism when he wrote: 
                "behaviorism is not the science of human
                behavior; it is the philosophy of that science." 
                (ABOUT BEHAVIORISM, p.3).
            c.  His primary target in Beyond Freedom and Dignity
                and Dignity was C.S. Lewis' ABOLITION OF MAN.

II.  A BRIEF STATEMENT OF HIS VIEWS

     A.  His definition of behavior:  "Any action of the organism
         on the outside world, its movements and the effects of
         movement.  Especially that which can be visually         
         observed."  (BEHAVIOR OF ORGANISMS, p, 8). 

     B.  Origin of behavior:  All behavior originates outside of
         man.  Man is a responder, a product of his environment
         and genetic inheritance.

     C.  His technique:  Known as "operant conditioning."  Any 
         behavior which is followed by a positive reinforcement
         is likely to be repeated.

     D.  His purpose:  not to understand man, but to predict and
         control his behavior.

     E.  His goal:  A utopian society brought about and 
         maintained by behaviorist principles, i.e. survival of
         culture.

III.  ASSUMPTIONS THAT CONDITIONED HIS CONCLUSIONS

      A.  His view of reality:  A materialist.  Matter and energy
          are the ultimate substances of reality.  The mental is
          a manifestation of the material.

      B.  His view of the origin of life:  All life forms on 
          earth are the result of chance processes active over
          long periods of time in which the simple gave rise to
          the complex.

      C.  Determinism:  All events (including the "brain events"
          we call "decisions") have physical causes, which if
          exactly repeated will produce the same results.

      D.  Epistemology:  Rigid empiricism.  Seems to have been 
          influenced a great deal by logical positivism.  Truth
          is that which corresponds to reality as it is perceived
          by the senses.  To Skinner, this is mainly vision.

      E.  Summary:  All the world is a box.  No universals, only
          particulars.  The universe is a closed system where
          every effect has a material cause.

          Illustration of the jig-saw puzzle:  In life there are
          only pieces; no overall-big-picture, no set way the
          pieces fit together.

III.  THE CRITIQUE OF BEHAVIORISM

      A.  Some behavior cannot be traced to physical 
          reinforcement.

          1.  The placebo effect does not adequately explain the
              response in a pure material sense.

          2.  Modern brain research:  Wilder Penfield.  When 
              patients were wired to electrodes they experienced
              two psychological states simultaneously; one which
              had occurred in the past.  This suggests a mental
              awareness that transcends brain activity. 
              Behaviorism cannot account for the observer. 
              Penfield's research has been confirmed by other
              brain researchers such as Sir John Eccles, and Sir  
              Charles Sherrington.

          3.  Gestalt psychology demonstrates through its 
              research that there is something internal that
              manipulates stimuli input.  These variables can be: 
              memory, expectation, motivation, and attention. 
              Skinner cannot adequately demonstrate that all
              mental events are indeed a product of the
              environment.

          4.  The theories of Noam Chomsky refute the
              behaviorist idea that language is a product of
              interaction with environment.

          5.  Albert Bandura's experiments show that people can 
              learn by observation and not just experience and
              reinforcement.  His study suggests the presence of
              symbolic processes that are present before any
              responses.

      B.  Ethical Problems:

          1.  According to Skinner's naturalism and determinism 
              what is is right.  But Skinner is inconsistent
              since he calls some behavior "objectionable."  On 
              what basis?  According to Skinner, behavior that
              enhances the survival value of a culture is good. 
              Which culture?  

          2.  If man is viewed as only an animal he is generally
              treated as one.  (see THE DIFFERENCE IN MAN AND THE
              DIFFERENCE IT MAKES, by Mortimer Adler.

          3.  In his controlled society who will the controllers
              be?  Carl Rogers says:  "Who will be controlled? 
              Who will exercise control?  What type of control
              will be exercised?  Most important of all, toward
              what end or what purpose, or in the pursuit of what
              value, will control be exercised?  (from the
              symposium).

      C.  Epistemological problems:  If Skinner is right that all
          behavior is the product of past environment, then even
          Skinner's ideas are not based on truth but only on his
          past.  Writing books like BEYOND FREEDOM AND DIGNITY
          implies meaningfulness of communication and setting
          forth a position like behaviorism implies that
          differing positions are wrong.  But "meaningfulness"
          and "truth claims" cannot be observed.  Skinner's rats
          have conditioned him as much as he has conditioned
          them.  How can one design a culture when he himself is
          conditioned by one?

      D.  Logical fallacies:  Reductionism.  Whatever the theory
          doesn't account for does not exist. "Whatever my net
          can't catch ain't fish."  Since Skinner cannot "catch"  
          freedom or dignity, mind, morals, reasoned thought, or
          God, he insists that none of these things exist.

      E.  There is no place for a rebel in Skinner's ideal 
          society.  But rebels are what bring about the
          intellectual and moral growth of a society.

      F.  Ideas from modern physics and parapsychology seem to 
          stand in opposition to Skinner's theories.

IV.  SUMMARY
  
     The teachings of behavioral technology are a useful 
     educational tool but must not become a tool of manipulation. 
     We find fault with Skinner's starting point, i.e., his
     assumptions about God, man and his environment.  Skinner is
     a good technician, but a poor philosopher.  Skinner asks us
     to replace the myth of freedom and dignity for the myth of  
     scientism (naturalism).

V.  CONCLUSION

    Getting back to freedom and dignity involves acceptance of an
    infinite reference point.

FOR FURTHER STUDY:

Adler, Mortimer J.  THE DIFFERENCE IN MAN AND THE DIFFERENCE IT 
    MAKES.  New York:  olt, Rinehart and Winston, 1967.
Bandura, A.  "Behavior Theory and the Models of Man,"  AMERICAN 
    PSYCHIARTRIST, 1974, 29, 859-69.
Bufford, Rodger K.  THE HUMAN REFLEX.  New York:  Harper and Row,
    1981.
Carpenter, F.  THE SKINNER PRIMER.  New York:  The Free Press, 
    1974.
Chomsky, N.  "Review of Verbal Behavior",  LANGUAGE, 1959, 35, 
    26-58.
Clark, Gordon H.  BEHAVIORISM AND CHRISTIANITY.  Jefferson, MD.: 
    The Trinity Foundation, 1982.
Cosgrove, Mark.  B.F. SKINNER'S BEHAVIORISM: AN ANALYSIS.  Grand
    Rapids, MI.:  Zondervan, 1982. 
Cosgrove, Mark.  THE ESSENCE OF HUMAN NATURE.  Grand Rapids, MI.: 
    Zondervan, 1977.
Custance, Arthur C.  THE MYSTERIOUS MIND OF MAN.  Grand Rapids, 
    MI.:  Zondervan, 1980.
Evans, Stephen C.  PRESERVING THE PERSON.  Downers Grove, IL.:  
    Inter-varsity Press, 1977.
Hilts, Philip J.  BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION.  New York: Harpers 
    Magazine Press, 1974.
Lewis. C.S.  THE ABOLITION OF MAN.  New York:  MacMillan,
    1947.
Machan, Tibor R. THE PSEUDO-SCIENCE OF B.F. SKINNER.  New 
    Rochelle, NY.:  Arlington House, 1974.
Matson, Floyd W.  THE BROKEN IMAGE.  New York:  Doubleday, 1964.
Matson, Floyd W.  THE IDEA OF MAN.  New York:  Delacorte, 1976.
Popper, Karl R. and Eccles, John C.  THE SELF AND ITS BRAIN.  
    Berlin:  Springer-Verlag, 1977.
Rogers, Carl and Skinner, B.F.  "Some issues concerning the 
    control of human behavior,"  SCIENCE.  1956. 124, 1057-1066.
Schaeffer, Francis A.  BACK TO FREEDOM AND DIGNITY.  Downers 
    Grove, IL.:  Inter-varsity Press, 1972.
Skinner, B.F.  ABOUT BEHAVIORISM.  New York:  Alfred A. Knopf, 
    1974.
Skinner, B.F.  BEYOND AND FREEDOM AND DIGNITY.  New York:  Alfred
    A. Knopf, 1971.
TIME.  Sept. 20, 1971.  "Skinner's Utopia:  Panacea, or Path to 
    Hell."
 
 
Christian Information Ministries is a non-profit ministry and is 
dependent on gifts from God's people in order to operate.  If you 
receive a benefit from our materials would you consider giving a 
tax-deductible gift to CIM.  We suggest $25. a year minimum.  
Send to:  Christian Information Ministries 
          2050 N. Collins Blvd. #100 
          Richardson, TX  75080 

Top of Page