The Selection of Behavior: The Operant Behaviorism of B. F. Skinner: Comments and Consequences

Burrhus Frederic Skinner

CUP Archive, Jun 24, 1988 - Psychology - 563 pages

This book was first published in 1988. B. F. Skinner was arguably the most important and influential psychologist of the last century. Yet in his long and distinguished career he consistently declined to be engaged by his critics. In his ninth decade, he elected to confront them all: cognitivists, ethologists, brain scientists, biologists, linguists, and philosophers - close to one hundred and fifty scientists and scholars from the entire spectrum of behavior-related disciplines around the world. Skinner's views on consciousness, language, problem solving, evolution, biology, brain function, computers, theory and explanation, presented in six seminal papers, are analyzed, criticized and explained in the 'open peer commentary' format of the Behavioral and Brain Sciences journal. The result is a remarkably lucid and revealing historical record of Skinnerian thinking and its impact on psychology and its allied disciplines. General readers, students, professionals and historians will find this unique intellectual exchange an invaluable resource.

Contents

• The operant behaviorism of B F Skinner: 3
• Skinners responses follow immediately after each commentary: 11
• A case study of intellectual isolation GEORGE W BARLOW: 20
• Behaviorism and natural selection C B G CAMPBELL: 27
• Replicators consequences and displacement activities RICHARD DAWKINS: 33
• The wider context of selection by consequences THOMAS J GAMBLE: 39
• Canonical papers of B F Skinner: 40
• Group and individual effects in selection MARVIN HARRIS: 46
• A onesided view of evolution J MAYNARD SMITH: 52
• Perspectives by consequences DUANE M RUMBAUGH: 60
• Selection misconstrued STEPHEN C STEARNS: 67
• Real people ordinary language and natural measurement SAMUEL M DIETZ: 105
• The challenge to Skinners theory of behavior BRIAN MACKENZIE: 111
• Problems of selection and phylogeny terms and methods: 8
• Selection by consequences: 11
• Giving up the ghost WILLIAM VAUGHAN: 73
• Methods and theories in the experimental analysis of behavior: 77
• The role of the statistician in psychologyF H C MARRIOTT: 114
• Skinners philosophy of method R J NELSON: 121
• What then should we do? SETH ROBERTS: 128
• Current questions for the science of behavior KENNETH M SAYRE: 134
• Behavior theories and the inner ERNEST SOSA: 141
• Behavioral and statistical theorists and their disciples LEROY WOLINS: 147
• The operational analysis of psychological terms: 150
• Stimulusresponse meaning theory JONATHAN BENNETT: 164
• Wishful thinking DANIEL C DENNETT: 174
• Operationism smuggled connotations and the nothingelse clause PETER HARZEM: 181
• Social traits selfobservations and other hypothetical constructs: 187
• On Skinners radical operationalism J MOORE: 200
• B F Skinners theorizing DOUGLAS STALKER AND PAUL ZIFF: 206
• On the operational definition of a toothache COLIN WRIGHT 23: 213
• An operant analysis of problem solving: 218
• Can we analyze Skinners problemsolving behavior in operant terms?: 239
• Psychology as moral rhetoric Rom HARRÉ: 245
• Contingencies rules and the problem of novel behavior PERE JULIÀ: 253
• Is there such a thing as a problem situation? KJELL RAAHEIM: 259
• New wine in old glasses? JOSEPH M SCANDURA: 265
• Negation in Skinners system N E WETHERICK: 275
• Behaviorism at fifty: 278
• Postscript: 292
• Treading the primrose path of dalliance in psychologyB A FARRELL: 299
• Consciousness explanation and the verbal community GORDON G GALLUP: 305
• Leibnizian privacy and Skinnerian privacy KEITH GUNDERSON: 311
• J B Watsons imagery and other mentalistic problems FRANCIS W IRWIN: 319
• Skinner and the mindbody problem WILLIAM G LYCAN: 325
• Behaviorism and the problem of privacy WILLIAM LYONS: 331
• Introspection as the key to mental life CHRIS MORTENSEN 338 Introspection as the key to mental life CHRIS MORTENSEN: 340
• The behaviorist concept of mind DAVID M ROSENTHAL: 351
• Explaining behavior Skinners way MICHAEL A SIMON: 358
• Mental way stations in contemporary theories of animal learning: 365
• The development of concepts of the mental world HENRY M WELLMAN: 371
• In support of cognitive theories THOMAS R ZENTALL: 379
• The phylogeny and ontogeny of behavior: 382
• Postscript: 400
• Contingencies of selection reinforcement and survival DAVID P BARASH: 406
• Costbenefit models and the evolution of behavior JERRAM L BROWN: 413
• Consequence contingencies and provenance partitions JUAN D DELIUS: 419
• B F Skinner versus Dr Pangloss MICHAEL T GHISELIN: 426
• The structure versus the provenance of behavior JERRY A HOGAN: 433
• B F Skinner and the flaws of sociobiology ANTHONY J PERZIGIAN: 441
• Is evolution of behavior operant conditioning writ large? ANATOL RAPOPORT: 448
• What are the scope and limits of radical behaviorist theory?: 465
• of behaviorism: 474
• Biographical sketch and bibliography of works: 489
• Acknowledgments and notes: 496
• Name index: 527
• Subject index: 535

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Selection of Behavior: The Operant Behaviorism of B. F. Skinner: Comments and Consequences
• Author: Burrhus Frederic Skinner
• Editors: A. Charles Catania, Stevan Robert Harnad, Stevan Harnad
• Edition: illustrated, reprint
• Publisher: CUP Archive, 1988
• ISBN: 0521348617, 9780521348614
• Length: 563 pages
• Subjects: Psychology / Applied Psychology; Psychology / Cognitive Psychology & Cognition