On January 4, 2016, the B. F. Skinner Foundation launched a new project – Skinner’s Quote of the Day. Quotes from B. F. Skinner’s works, selected by renowned scientists, appear daily Monday-Friday in order, starting with Chapter 1 of each book and running all the way through the last chapter. We started with the Science and Human Behavior (January-December 2916), followed by About Behaviorism (January-November 2017), Contingencies of Reinforcement (January-October 2018), Recent Issues (October 2018-May 2019), Reflections on Behaviorism and Society (May 2019-February 2020), and now moving on to Upon Further Reflection (from February 10 2020).
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For more than twenty-five hundred years close attention has been paid to mental life, but only recently has any effort been made to study human behavior as something more than…
The dimensions of the world of mind and the transition from one world to another do raise embarrassing problems, but it is usually possible to ignore them, and this may…
Almost everyone who is concerned with human affairs—as political scientist, philosopher, man of letters, economist, psychologist, linguist, sociologist, theologian, anthropologist, educator, or psychotherapist—continues to talk about human behavior in this…
Careless references to purpose are still to be found in both physics and biology, but good practice has no place for them; yet almost everyone attributes human behavior to intentions,…
The exciting thing about getting to the moon was its feasibility. Science and technology had reached the point at which, with one great push, the thing could be done. There…
Was putting a man on the moon actually easier than improving education in our public schools? Or than constructing better kinds of living space for everyone? (p. 6)
It can always be argued that human behavior is a particularly difficult field. It is, and we are especially likely to think so just because we are so inept in…
Aristotle could not have understood a page of modern physics or biology, but Socrates and his friends would have little trouble in following most current discussions of human affairs. (p.…
Greek physics and biology are now of historical interest only (no modern physicist or biologist would turn to Aristotle for help), but the dialogues of Plato are still assigned to…
Twenty-five hundred years ago it might have been said that man understood himself as well as any other part of his world. Today he is the thing he understands least.…
... a behavioral technology comparable in power and precision to physical and biological technology is lacking, and those who do not find the very possibility ridiculous are more likely to…
It is not enough to "use technology with a deeper understanding of human issues," or to "dedicate technology to man's spiritual needs," or to "encourage technologists to look at human…
In short, we need to make vast changes in human behavior, and we cannot make them with the help of nothing more than physics or biology, no matter how hard…
The application of the physical and biological sciences alone will not solve our problems because the solutions lie in another field. (p. 4)
In trying to solve the terrifying problems that face us in the world today, we naturally turn to the things we do best. We play from strength, and our strength…
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.…
If we are to predict behavior (and possibly to control it), we must deal with probability of response. The business of a science of behavior is to evaluate this probability…
Progress in a scientific field usually waits upon the discovery of a satisfactory dependent variable. Until such a variable has been discovered, we resort to theory. (p. 75)
Rate of responding appears to be the only datum which varies significantly and in the expected direction under conditions which are relevant to the “learning process.” (p. 75)
To show an orderly change in the behavior of the average rat or ape or child is not enough, since learning is a process in the behavior of the individual.…
That a theory generates research does not prove its value unless the research is valuable. (p. 71)
When we assert that an animal acts in a given way because it expects to receive food, then what began as the task of accounting for learned behavior becomes the…
When we attribute behavior to a neural or mental event, real or conceptual, we are likely to forget that we still have the task of accounting for the neural or…
A science of behavior must eventually deal with behavior in its relation to certain manipulable variables. Theories—whether neural, mental, or conceptual—talk about intervening steps in these relationships. But instead of…
It would be foolhardy to deny the achievements of theories . . . in the history of science. The question of whether they are necessary, however, has other implications and…
The term theory will . . . refer here . . . to any explanation of an observed fact which appeals to events taking place somewhere else, at some other…
No empirical statement is wholly nontheoretical . . . because evidence is never complete, nor is any prediction probably ever made wholly without evidence. (p. 69)
Certain statements are also theories simply to the extent that they are not yet facts. A scientist may guess at the result of an experiment before the experiment is carried…
Certain basic assumptions, essential to any scientific activity, are sometimes called theories. That nature is orderly rather than capricious is an example. (p. 69)
Asked to describe a world in which he would like to live, a man will often refer directly to reinforcing conditions—freedom from aversive stimulation and an abundance of positive reinforcers—but…
From the point of view of an experimental analysis of behavior, [the concept of “happiness”] appears to be merely an awkward way of representing the roles of positive and negative…
If the community has solved the essential problems of daily life, it may leave each member free to do as he pleases. But he is free only to come under…
Current systems of rewards are largely aversive, the threatened loss of a standard of living being more important than the receipt of wages. (p. 63)
It is a basic principle that behavior which is followed by certain kinds of consequences is more likely to occur again, but reinforcements may be contingent on behavior in many…
Reward refers very loosely to the “positive reinforcers” which have been extensively analyzed in laboratory research. (p. 62)
A community may need as much power to reward as to punish, but it is not said to be using force because its operations are not resisted. (p. 62)
Extensive use of punishment will cost a community some of its members. It may also lead to counterattack—as in revolution or religious reformation—or to stubborn resistance to all forms of…
The principles derived from an experimental analysis of behavior offer the designer [of an experimental community] considerable help in setting up an environment under which behavior which will contribute to…
A special branch of psychology has now reached the point at which promising technological applications are becoming feasible. (p. 61)
The hard fact is that the culture which most readily acknowledges the validity of a scientific analysis is most likely to be successful in the competition between cultures which, whether…
If we must have something to admire, let it be man’s willingness to discard a flattering portrait of himself in favor of a more accurate and hence more useful picture.…
Science leads us to see man in a different light, but he is nevertheless the same man we once saw in another light. (p. 57)
Men control themselves by controlling the world in which they live. They do this as much when they exercise self-control, as when they make changes in their culture which alter…
Science and technology are concerned with changing the world in which men live, and changes are made precisely because of their effect on human behavior. (p. 56)
In turning to external and manipulable variables, a scientific analysis moves away from supposed inner activities which we have tried to reach through admiration. (p. 56)
We shall no longer admire wrestling with the devil, if it turns out that the devil is simply a slight disturbance in the hypothalamus which can be allayed by a…
Admiration is a social practice used to eke out defective control. (p. 55)
When we regard a criminal as in need of treatment rather than punishment, . . . we deprive him of “the human attribute of responsibility.” (p. 54)
There are many advantages in arranging matters so that the pupil does what he wants to do, but he must be carefully prepared to want to do those things which…
We may condition a man to behave in virtuous ways as we condition animals to behave according to any set of specifications, but such a man will not [according to…