Beyond Freedom & Dignity

Beyond Freedom and Dignity is a very contoversial book, as are the teachings of Dr. Skinner. All college students at the least, haven taken Psychology 101, have been introduced to his pigeon conditioning. What makes this book controversial is his basic premise of the age-old question of free will vs. determinism. He is a behavioral determinist, and with that would reduce the violence, etc., of society by education and training (conditioning); however, since the majority of the population is very firm in their belief of free will, the brilliance of this psychologist and how society can benefit gets dissed. He must have felt like a modern day Copernicus saying for the first time that the earth revolved around the sun and not vice versa. Give him a hundred years to be famous.

B.F. Skinner was the leading experimental psychologist in the United States for a large portion of his career, and his reputation within the field is still formidable. Unlike most scientists, Skinner also chose to write books for a popular audience. And, unlike most so-called "popular scientists" like Carl Sagan or Stephen Jay Gould, Skinner cared more that the layman understood the philosophy behind science, rather than how that particular science worked. "Beyond Freedom and Dignity" is Skinner's most successful - and controversial work. Skinner's brand of psychology is called Behaviorism for a very good reason - it deals only with objective, measurable behaviors and does not speculate about motivations, drives, dreams, etc. Skinner argues that applied Behaviorism has the potential to solve many seemingly unsolvable problems, such as overpopulation, crime, pollution, and the like. To Skinner, our very concepts of Freedom and Dignity are hindrances because they are abstract ideals that cannot be measured or quantified. It is only when we care about behavior that we have a chance of understanding why human beings do the things that we do and have the potential to truly change society. I strongly recommend this book, although I do not agree with much of Skinner's philosophy. Skinner wrote clearly, cleanly, and directly. Anyone with a high school diploma or GED could read and understand this book, and engage in a dialogue with Skinner's ideas. I've used chapters of this book in a course in the History of Psychology that I teach, and it never fails to engage people, challenge them, and spur them on to debate. To me, this is what a great book should do. Whether you glorify or villify B.F. Skinner, his ideas are worth grappling with. I would try a copy at my local library first and then purchase this book if you wish to reread it.

This is a great book. It argues that: 1) the human race faces great and urgent problems, such as overpopulation and habitat destruction. 2) we don't behave all that well: we're having difficulty addressing the urgent problems. 3) a scientific approach may be able to help. 4) indeed, a "technology of behavior" is being developed and shows promise. This includes Skinner's experimental findings and conclusions, for example, the role of operant conditioning and the limitations of punishment. 5) Using this emerging technology of behavior, individuals can manage themselves better (as Skinner demonstrated with himself). As a race, we should also be able to use this technology to manage ourselves collectively better. 6) We are being managed (i.e. controlled) anyway, often by forces we either aren't aware of or don't grasp the impact of. 7) If we took control of this technology of behavior, applying it as it is and developing it further, we might be able to save ourselves from the urgent problems that confront us. 8) A key obstacle to the application and further development of this technology is our belief that we are somehow ultimately free of external causes. We believe in free will (freedom or autonomy) and consequently we take credit ( feel dignity) for things we really don't have much or any control over. 9) If we look at the explanations we offer on the basis of our freedom and dignity, we may see that they cover up huge areas of ignorance we have as to why we behave as we do. And if we look at our behavior, we see that we don't control it as much as we think we can (consider the problem people have with obesity or addiction) and we take credit for things we aren't responsible for (including what now appear to be genetic endowments). 10) By attributing things to our "free will", we tend to ignore the real events that influence us, and by so doing we fail to learn from them. 11) If we worked together to look at what really is influencing us and at how we do and can influence others, we might be able to shift ourselves toward being more altruistic and more effective, i.e. we might be able to overcome the big problems that we are currently creating. Better ways of managing ourselves may mean better ways to manipulate others, but it may also mean that people will be better informed so as to counter manipulations and join, where appropriate, in managing themselves better. At least with an open, scientific process, we have a chance of learning and improving the process ourselves, instead of floundering into disasters due to half-baked concepts about ourselves. It may make no sense to you to chuck your "autonomous person" yet, but there's no need to. The important thing is to take a little time to learn what Skinner and other behaviorists have learned and try to apply it to help yourself ... and others. You may find yourself stepping beyond freedom and dignity toward knowledge and usefulness ... and that may feel like a good thing.

This book, like everything else produced during the era, has that '70s aura of doom and gloom about it, but that's no reason to get twisted in the details like the previous reviewer. Skinner points out what's been right in front of our noses all along--always a sign of true brilliance.The world abounds with examples that prove his main point: that humans are not strictly 'free', nor can we ever be. We can chose to accept the obvious and exert some conscious control over the 'contingencies' of our behavior, or we can continue to stick our head in the sand and refuse to believe that we are subject to many of the same rules of design as other animals...well-trodden ground previously occupied by critics of Darwin, most notably.

This is an extremely important book whose central thesis is that people prefer to be controlled by forces they cannot directly observe rather than by forces they can directly observe. When someone makes you do something, you feel controlled and are likely to rebel. If you are controlled by things that don't seem to be controlling you, though, like your education or the norms of your society, then you don't feel coerced and do not rebel. His point, however, is that you are still being controlled even if you don't see the hand of the person controlling you. Although most people are horrified by Skinner's assertion that they are being controlled by forces they don't know about, Skinner himself did not mean the book to be pessimistic. Instead, he hoped that by alerting people to what controls them that they would be able to examine those controls and change them through a science of behavior.