On Apr 11, 2014, at 4:40 PM, Christopher Green wrote: > > On 2014-04-11, at 4:00 PM, michael sylvester wrote: >> Skinner was suspected of being a commie.Did he ever come under the radar of >> the House Un-unAmerican activities Committee? > > The society depicted in _Walden II_ was certainly collectivist, if not > actually "communist." (If by that word you mean Marxist. There were lots of > other communisms before Marx). I can imagine the small minds on HUAC getting > nervous about that.
As I once pointed out to Paul Meehl when he likened Skinner to communism/socialism -- the defining credo of socialism is 'to each according to his need, from each according to his ability', which is a direct contradiction of the principle of reinforcement underlying Walden Two, which is that consequences must be appropriate to the work required of individuals. >> And with some Ukrainians opting to rejoin Russia,wouldn't this illustrative >> of >> Skinner's idea that we cannot afford freedom? It might if Skinner had ever had that idea. What he actually said (read Beyond Freedom and Dignity and About Behaviorism) was that we cannot afford the concept of philosophical or theological freedom (as opposed to political or social freedom) then popular. > Closer to Erich Fromm's "Escape From Freedom." Paul Brandon Emeritus Professor of Psychology Minnesota State University, Mankato [email protected] --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=36090 or send a blank email to leave-36090-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
