Beyond Freedom and Dignity (1971).

Spent 18 weeks on the New York Times Best Seller list.

Beyond Freedom and Dignity is a book-length essay written by American psychologist B. F. Skinner and first published in 1971. The book argued that entrenched belief in free will and the moral autonomy of the individual (which Skinner referred to as "dignity") hindered the prospect of using scientific methods to modify behavior for the purpose of building a happier and better organized society. Image File history File links Size of this preview: 433 × 599 pixelsFull resolution (666 × 922 pixel, file size: 346 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Better version of part 1. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 433 × 599 pixelsFull resolution (666 × 922 pixel, file size: 346 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Better version of part 1. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 404 × 599 pixelsFull resolution (666 × 988 pixel, file size: 322 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) hardcover version of part 2 This image is of a book cover, and the copyright for it is most likely owned either by the artist who... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 404 × 599 pixelsFull resolution (666 × 988 pixel, file size: 322 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) hardcover version of part 2 This image is of a book cover, and the copyright for it is most likely owned either by the artist who... The New York Times Best Seller List is a weekly chart in The New York Times newspaper that keeps track of the best-selling books of the week. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... A psychologist is a scientist and/or clinician who studies psychology, the systematic investigation of the human mind, including behavior and cognition. ... Burrhus Frederic Fred Skinner (March 20, 1904 – August 18, 1990), Ph. ... Year 1971 (MCMLXXI) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display full calendar) of the 1971 Gregorian calendar. ... Free-Will is a Japanese independent record label founded in 1986. ... Look up autonomy, autonomous in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

Skinner's book joined the catalog of works which have called, always very controversially, for improving social behavior through the use of scientific techniques. Skinner's proposal is somewhat unusual in that it advocates an approach based entirely on psychological techniques (primarily operant conditioning), without recourse to genetic or biological modification. Operant conditioning is the use of consequences to modify the occurrence and form of behavior. ... This article is about the general scientific term. ...

Beyond Freedom and Dignity is consistent with Walden Two, an earlier novel in which Skinner depicted a utopian community based on his ideas regarding behavior modification. Walden Two (1948) is a novel by B.F. Skinner which described a fictional utopia in which a thousand people have obtained a good life modeled after Thoreaus experiment in living near Walden pond. ... Left panel (The Earthly Paradise, Garden of Eden), from Hieronymus Boschs The Garden of Earthly Delights. ...

Linguist Noam Chomsky and writer Ayn Rand wrote influential works attacking Skinner's methods and conclusions^{[citation needed]}. The book also has been attacked by paleoconservatives: it made the Intercollegiate Studies Institute's 50 Worst Books of the Twentieth Century and was an "honorable mention" in Human Events' Ten Most Harmful Books of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. Linguistics is the scientific study of language, which can be theoretical or applied. ... Avram Noam Chomsky (Hebrew :אברם נועם חומסקי Yiddish: אברם נועם כאמסקי) (born December 7, 1928) is an American linguist, philosopher, political activist, author, and lecturer. ... Ayn Rand (IPA: , February 2 [O.S. January 20] 1905 – March 6, 1982), born Alisa Zinovyevna Rosenbaum (Russian: ), was a Russian-born American novelist and philosopher,[1] best known for developing Objectivism and for writing the novels We the Living, The Fountainhead, Atlas Shrugged and the novella Anthem. ... The term paleoconservative (sometimes shortened to paleo or paleocon when the context is clear) refers to an American branch of conservative Old Right thought that is frequently at odds with the current of conservative thought as espoused by the Republican Party elite. ... The Intercollegiate Studies Institute, Inc. ... The Intercollegiate Studies Institute, Inc. ... Human Events is a weekly conservative magazine founded in 1944. ... Human Events is a weekly conservative magazine founded in 1944. ...

Quotations

People are not free

"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."^[1]

People are bodies displaying repertoires of behavior

"The picture which emerges from a scientific analysis is not of a body with a person inside, but of a body which is a person in the sense that it displays a complex repertoire of behavior. . . . What is being abolished is autonomous man—the inner man, the homunculus, the possessing demon, the man defended by the literatures of freedom and dignity. His abolition has long been overdue. . . . Science does not dehumanize man, it de-homunculizes him."^[2]

See also

• Behaviorism
• Behavior Modification

Behaviorism (also called learning perspective) is a philosophy of psychology based on the proposition that all things which organisms do—including acting, thinking and feeling—can and should be regarded as behaviors. ... This article is about the behaviorist technique. ...

Notes

1. ^ Beyond Freedom and Dignity (New York: Bantam Vintage paperback, 1972), p. 17.
2. ^ Beyond Freedom and Dignity (New York: Bantam Vintage, 1972), pp. 190-191. By "homunculus," Skinner refers to the view that there is a "little man" inside one's head (a mind, soul, or will). See, for example, here.