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B.F. Skinner Walden II and the reaction?

  • 21-10-2009 6:34pm
    #1
    sponsoredwalk
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,038 ✭✭✭


    Hello, just wondering if anybody has read the work Walden 2 by Behaviourist B.F. Skinner? More specifically, as it's like Thoreau's original Walden but from the communal perspective, I'd like to know how it's viewed in modern day psychological research and how somebody like Noam Chomsky would criticise his work when
    Skinner essentially posits Walden Two as a practical non-violent anarchist system
    (From Wikipedia) and Chomsky's own work is essentially the same. Any thoughts? :PGratias Vobis Ago:P


Comments

  • #2
    Neuro
    Registered Users Posts: 459 ✭✭Neuro


    Walden II is basically a fictionalised account of a small, self-sustaining community of individuals that employ behaviourist principles to improve their quality of life; it is, in effect, a utopian novel. Having read it, I believe it is overly simplistic in its approach to human motivation.

    As for Chomsky, I don't believe he criticised this work directly. His gripe lay with Skinner's improbable account of language acquisition in children.


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