>Some of the arguments put forward by Gore and Bush reminds me
>of Skinner's piece on the notion of control.If my memory serves
>me right,Skinner was for the idea of control,but he did think
>it to be an issue as to if we should be controlled by the
>government,the state or ourselves.
No.
Skinner said that we are _all_ controlled by environmental contingencies,
operating under the constraints of genetics and reinforcement histories.
This is not a choice -- it's the way things are.
>I have my beef with Bush as to whether things would be better off
>if we let the community,the state,parents and citizens decide
>on what's best for them.
>It appears that we can get fair and good controls from top down.
>Like Skinner's question "Can we afford freedom?"
Do you have a quotation for that?
I doubt that he ever said that, since he did not believe in the existence
of freedom in the sense of 'free will'.
Read Walden Two if you're really interested in Skinner's ideas about
designing political systems with the minimum of personal constraints and
aversive control.
>Btw,was Skinner a democrat,a republican or a behaviorist?
A radical behaviorist.
If he was a member of any organized political party (as opposed to
Democrats ;-) I'm not aware of it.
* PAUL K. BRANDON [EMAIL PROTECTED] *
* Psychology Dept Minnesota State University, Mankato *
* 23 Armstrong Hall, Mankato, MN 56001 ph 507-389-6217 *
* http://www.mankato.msus.edu/dept/psych/welcome.html *
