B. F. Skinner
B. F. Skinner
Burrhus Frederic Skinner, commonly known as B. F. Skinner, was an American psychologist, behaviorist, author, inventor, and social philosopher. He was the Edgar Pierce Professor of Psychology at Harvard University from 1958 until his retirement in 1974...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionScientist
Date of Birth20 March 1904
CitySusquehana Depot, PA
CountryUnited States of America
mistake men issues
It is a mistake to suppose that the whole issue is how to free man. The issue is to improve the way in which he is controlled.
good-life waiting facts
The one fact that I would cry form every housetop is this: the Good Life is waiting for us - here and now.
teacher school punishment
Punitive measures whether administered by police, teachers, spouses or parents have well known standard effects: (1) escape-education has its own name for that: truancy, (2) counterattack-vandalism on schools and attacks on teachers, (3) apathy-a sullen do-nothing withdrawal. The more violent the punishment, the more serious the by-products.
said has-beens
Those who have had anything useful to say have said it far too often, and those who have had nothing to say have been no more reticent.
holocaust waiting nuclear
Must we wait for selection to solve the problems of overpopulation, exhaustion of resources, pollution of the environment and a nuclear holocaust, or can we take explicit steps to make our future more secure? In the latter case, must we not transcend selection?
practice achievement society
Many social practices essential to the welfare of the species involve the control of one person by another, and no one can suppress them who has any concern for human achievements
disappointment errors might
A disappointment is not generally an oversight. It might just be the best one can do the situation being what it is. The genuine error is to quit attempting.
taught rats said
I've often said that my rats have taught me much more than I've taught them.
environmental doe behavior
Does a poet create, originate, initiate the thing called a poem, or is his behavior merely the product of his genetic and environmental histories?
intelligent men personality
The juvenile delinquent does not feel his disturbed personality. The intelligent man does not feel his intelligence or the introvert his introversion.
government source
A permissive government is a government that leaves control to other sources.
hands novelty culture
A culture must be reasonably stable, but it must also change, and it will presumably be strongest if it can avoid excessive respect for tradition and fear of novelty on the one hand and excessively rapid change on the other.
tendencies aggression clear
The extent to which human aggression exemplifies innate tendencies is not clear.
views practice together
In the traditional view, a person is free. He is autonomous in the sense that his behavior is uncaused. He can therefore be held responsible for what he does and justly punished if he offends. That view, together with its associated practices, must be re-examined when a scientific analysis reveals unsuspected controlling relations between behavior and environment.