2021 marks the 50-year anniversary of the original publication of Skinner’s book Beyond Freedom and Dignity (BFD). Celebrating this anniversary, today we switch to publishing quotes from BFD for the next several weeks. (We resume quoting from Cumulative Record after completing our quotes from BFD.)
Beyond Freedom and Dignity is probably Skinner’s most well-known title. According to the author, the book stayed on the New York Times best-seller list for 20 weeks, and he became “for the moment an embarrassed VIP.” As Skinner also wrote in a new preface to the book in 1988, the reviews were mixed but, as Skinner pointed out, few questioned the importance of the problems discussed in the book. He started by describing some “terrifying problems” facing the world today, such as the population explosion, nuclear holocaust, world famine, problems of the ghettos, and pollution of the environment. In short, Skinner argued that “almost all our major problems involve human behavior, and they cannot be solved by physical and biological technology alone. What is needed is a technology of behavior, . . .” (p. 24). In BFD, Skinner explained how the traditional conceptions of ‘freedom,’ ‘dignity,’ and ‘values’ have stood in the way of an effective science of human behavior and its applications to improve human lives.
Originally, Skinner had called the book just Freedom and Dignity. However, the Knopf editor claimed that following Skinner’s treatment of the traditional concepts, there was not much left of either of them. Skinner himself then suggested putting “Beyond” in front of his original title, but later realized that it was misleading: “As a scientist, I did not think of people as free initiating agents to be credited with their achievements, but I was proposing changes in social practices which should make them feel freer than ever before and accomplish more” (From A Matter of Consequences, pp. 310-311).
We hope that you will enjoy the quotations from Beyond Freedom and Dignity.