Beyond Freedom and Dignity

Beyond Freedom and Dignity PDF

Author: B. F. Skinner

Publisher: Hackett Publishing

Published: 2002-03-15

Total Pages: 241

ISBN-13: 1603840818

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In this profound and profoundly controversial work, a landmark of 20th-century thought originally published in 1971, B. F. Skinner makes his definitive statement about humankind and society. Insisting that the problems of the world today can be solved only by dealing much more effectively with human behavior, Skinner argues that our traditional concepts of freedom and dignity must be sharply revised. They have played an important historical role in our struggle against many kinds of tyranny, he acknowledges, but they are now responsible for the futile defense of a presumed free and autonomous individual; they are perpetuating our use of punishment and blocking the development of more effective cultural practices. Basing his arguments on the massive results of the experimental analysis of behavior he pioneered, Skinner rejects traditional explanations of behavior in terms of states of mind, feelings, and other mental attributes in favor of explanations to be sought in the interaction between genetic endowment and personal history. He argues that instead of promoting freedom and dignity as personal attributes, we should direct our attention to the physical and social environments in which people live. It is the environment rather than humankind itself that must be changed if the traditional goals of the struggle for freedom and dignity are to be reached. Beyond Freedom and Dignity urges us to reexamine the ideals we have taken for granted and to consider the possibility of a radically behaviorist approach to human problems--one that has appeared to some incompatible with those ideals, but which envisions the building of a world in which humankind can attain its greatest possible achievements.

Walden Two

Walden Two PDF

Author: B. F. Skinner

Publisher: Hackett Publishing

Published: 2005-07-15

Total Pages: 321

ISBN-13: 1603840362

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A reprint of the 1976 Macmillan edition. This fictional outline of a modern utopia has been a center of controversy ever since its publication in 1948. Set in the United States, it pictures a society in which human problems are solved by a scientific technology of human conduct.

Ethics for Behavior Analysts

Ethics for Behavior Analysts PDF

Author: Jon Bailey

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2006-04-21

Total Pages: 301

ISBN-13: 1135608881

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Behavior analysis, a rapidly growing profession, began with the use and application of conditioning and learning techniques to modify the behavior of children or adults presenting severe management problems, often because of developmental disabilities. Now behavior analysts work in a variety of settings, from clinics and schools to workplaces. Especially since their practice often involves aversive stimuli or punishment, they confront many special ethical challenges. Recently, the Behavior Analysis Certification Board codified a set of ten fundamental ethical guidelines to be followed by all behavior analysts and understood by all students and trainees seeking certification. This book shows readers how to follow the BACB guidelines in action. The authors first describe core ethical principles and then explain each guideline in detail, in easily comprehensible, everyday language. The text is richly illuminated by more than a hundred vivid case scenarios about which the authors pose, and later answer questions for readers. Useful appendices include the BACB Guidelines, an index to them, practice scenarios, and suggested further reading. Practitioners, instructors, supervisors, students, and trainees alike will welcome this invaluable new aid to professional development.

Psychology and the Human Dilemma

Psychology and the Human Dilemma PDF

Author: Rollo May

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Published: 1979

Total Pages: 244

ISBN-13: 9780393314557

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In this paperback reissue, May discusses our loss of our personal identity in the contemporary world, the sources of our anxiety, the scope of phychotherapy, and the ultimate paradox of freedom and responsibility. Whether reflecting on war, psychology, or the ideas of existentialist thinkers such as Sartre and Kierkegaard, Dr. May enlarges our outlook on how people can develop creatively within the human predicament.

About Behaviorism

About Behaviorism PDF

Author: B.F. Skinner

Publisher: Vintage

Published: 2011-08-24

Total Pages: 304

ISBN-13: 0307797848

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The basic book about the controversial philosophy known as behaviorism, written by its leading exponent. Bibliography, index.

God, Freedom and Human Dignity

God, Freedom and Human Dignity PDF

Author: Ron Highfield

Publisher: InterVarsity Press

Published: 2012-11-29

Total Pages: 241

ISBN-13: 0830864504

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Does God's all-encompassing will restrict our freedom? Does God's ownership and mastery over us diminish our dignity? The fear that God is a threat to our freedom and dignity goes far back in Western thought. Such suspicion remains with us today in our so-called secular society. In such a context any talk of God tends to provoke responses that range from defiance to subservience to indifference. How did Western culture come to this place? What impact does this social and intellectual environment have on those who claim to believe in God or more specifically in the Christian God of the Bible? Professor of religion Ron Highfield traces out the development of Western thought that has led us our current frame of mind from Plato, Augustine and Descartes through Locke, Kant, Blake Bentham, Hegel, Nietzsche--all the way down to Charles Taylor's landmark work Sources of the Self. At the heart of the issue is the modern notion of the autonomous self and the inevitable crisis it provokes for a view of human identity, freedom and dignity found in God. Can the modern self really secure its own freedom, dignity and happiness? What alternative do we have? Highfield makes pertinent use of trinitarian theology to show how genuine Christian faith responds to this challenge by directing us to a God who is not in competition with his human creations, but rather who provides us with what we seek but could never give ourselves. God, Freedom and Human Dignity is essential reading for Christian students who are interested in the debates around secularism, modernity and identity formation.

The Science of Behavior and the Image of Man

The Science of Behavior and the Image of Man PDF

Author: Carl von Clausewitz

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-07-05

Total Pages: 357

ISBN-13: 1351474618

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Does a proper respect for science require psychologists to view man as an impotent reactor whose responses are completely determined by his physical constitution and the forces impinging upon him? In this wise and well-argued book, Isidor Chein invites his readers to lift their eyes from experimental research for a time to consider the relationship between science and the image of man.Few psychologists, even the most gifted and dedicated among them, pause to consider the philosophical underpinnings of their work. It is almost as though the humanist secretly lurking in each of them is fearful of the bad news he might finally be forced to accept--that man is essentially an exquisitely complicated robot. This fear is misplaced and harmful. It is largely responsible for the disturbing fact that scientific psychology has produced, in Chein's estimate, so little that is relevant to the humanities, so little, as he puts it, "that has lived up to psychology's promise to itself."What must be more widely understood is that it does not follow that behavioral law is reducible to physiological law, or that physiological law is reducible to physical law. With an uncompromising commitment to scientific method, Chein shows that, when closely analyzed, there is actually no need to assume an unbridgeable gap between scientific psychology and psychoanalytic, humanistic psychology. This is a lucid and powerful theoretical work of importance for scholars in all fields sharing the belief that the proper study of mankind is man."The Science of Behavior and the Image of Man is written by the most intellectually stimulating and respected representative of scientific humanistic psychology."--Robert B. Holt, Professor of Psychology, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, New York University

Understanding Behaviorism

Understanding Behaviorism PDF

Author: William M. Baum

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2017-01-03

Total Pages: 320

ISBN-13: 1119143667

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Understanding Behaviorism is a classic textbook that explains the basis of behavior analysis and its application to human problems in a scholarly but accessible manner. Now in its third edition, the text has been substantially updated to include the latest developments over the last decade in behaviour analysis, evolutionary theory, and cultural evolution theory The only book available that explains behavior analysis and applies it to philosophical and practical problems, written by one of today’s best-known and most highly respected behaviorists Explores ancient concepts such as purpose, language, knowledge, and thought, as well as applying behavioural thinking to contemporary social issues like freedom, democracy, and culture Part of the new evolutionary perspective for understanding individual behavior in general and culture in particular – culminates with practical approaches to improving the lives of all humanity

Mind in Society

Mind in Society PDF

Author: L. S. Vygotsky

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2012-10-01

Total Pages: 180

ISBN-13: 0674076699

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The great Russian psychologist L. S. Vygotsky has long been recognized as a pioneer in developmental psychology. But somewhat ironically, his theory of development has never been well understood in the West. Mind in Society should correct much of this misunderstanding. Carefully edited by a group of outstanding Vygotsky scholars, the book presents a unique selection of Vygotsky’s important essays, most of which have previously been unavailable in English. The Vygotsky who emerges from these pages can no longer be glibly included among the neobehaviorists. In these essays he outlines a dialectical-materialist theory of cognitive development that anticipates much recent work in American social science. The mind, Vygotsky argues, cannot be understood in isolation from the surrounding society. Man is the only animal who uses tools to alter his own inner world as well as the world around him. From the handkerchief knotted as a simple mnemonic device to the complexities of symbolic language, society provides the individual with technology that can be used to shape the private processes of mind. In Mind in Society Vygotsky applies this theoretical framework to the development of perception, attention, memory, language, and play, and he examines its implications for education. The result is a remarkably interesting book that is bound to renew Vygotsky’s relevance to modern psychological thought.

Economic Dignity

Economic Dignity PDF

Author: Gene Sperling

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2021-10-12

Total Pages: 385

ISBN-13: 1984879898

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“Timely and important . . . It should be our North Star for the recovery and beyond.” —Hillary Clinton “Sperling makes a forceful case that only by speaking to matters of the spirit can liberals root their belief in economic justice in people’s deepest aspirations—in their sense of purpose and self-worth.” —The New York Times When Gene Sperling was in charge of coordinating economic policy in the Obama White House, he found himself surprised when serious people in Washington told him that the Obama focus on health care was a distraction because it was “not focused on the economy.” How, he asked, was the fear felt by millions of Americans of being one serious illness away from financial ruin not considered an economic issue? Too often, Sperling found that we measured economic success by metrics like GDP instead of whether the economy was succeeding in lifting up the sense of meaning, purpose, fulfillment, and security of people. In Economic Dignity, Sperling frames the way forward in a time of wrenching change and offers a vision of an economy whose guiding light is the promotion of dignity for all Americans.