University of Virginia Library

Naivete

His lack of insight into human
nature is nothing less than
appalling. The theory he sets forth
shows that his amazing idealism is
surpassed only by his naivete.
Briefly, he contends that there is no
such thing as autonomous man,
that he is nothing more than the
product of his genetic make-up and
the environment that shapes him.
"Autonomous man serves to
explain only the things we are not
yet able to explain in other ways.
His existence depends upon our
ignorance..."

Therefore, Skinner reasons,
since there is no such thing as free
will, and nothing exists in man that
cannot be analyzed and controlled,
he should be controlled in a way
that will build a better society; a
society in which man will not fight
wars, pollute the environment, or
overpopulate the earth. The magic
method for exerting this control
is-you guessed it-behaviorism.

The idea is not even new;
determinists have been spouting it
for two centuries now. In 1860 the
Russian philosopher Nicholas
Chernyshevsky outlined the same
ideas in his essay "The
Anthropological Principle in
Philosophy" with only the word
"behaviorism" missing from his
argument. He writes "...and how
circumstances and attitudes must
be changed in order that the state
of the economy may be
improved-these are again new
problems, the theoretical solution
of which is very easy; and again, the
practical application of the
scientific solutions depends upon
man becoming imbued with certain
impressions."

Skinner has discovered exactly
how to cause man to become
"imbued with certain impressions,"
and he wants his techniques to be
used on all mankind, not just
psychotics and criminals. He feels
that once men abandon such
obsolete abstractions as freedom,
dignity, and the sanctity of the
individual, they will be on the way
to creating a lasting society
unthreatened by premature doom.