On Skinner's Politics

S approach to psychology was inevitable. After Nietzche declared in the nineteenth century that we should move "beyond good and evil," it was only a matter of time before we were asked to go "beyond freedom and dignity." Nietzche prepared the way for Skinner by radicalizing the critique begun by others of the traditional view that man is a reasoning being. l Skinner follows that critique through to its logical conclusions. He argues very simply that the new science of behavior has proved that man must be completely redefined. This redefinition makes possible a new approach to politics, an approach which offers the promise of an end to the troubles which have plagued man for thousands of years. Behaviorism, therefore, offers us new hope, but it also asks for a sacrifice in the name of that hope. The question for us is twofold: is the hope justified, and can we make the sacrifice? We should not cling to traditional views of man just because they are familiar to us and hence comforting, but neither should we abandon our tradition without a careful examination of the alternative which behaviorism offers. This study of Skinner is designed to make a contribution to such an examination. As a result of the controversy surrounding Skinner, both Walden II and Beyond Freedom and Dignity are well known: the first is a novel about an imaginary community founded on behavioristic principles; the second is an account of what Skinner believes to be the need for a "technology of behavior." 2 Taken together, they con-