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
• Selection by consequences: 11
• On the status of causal modes Robert C Bolles: 23
• Skinner selection and selfcontrol Bo Dahlbom: 29
• The Darwin of ontogeny? John W Donahoe: 36
• Fitting culture into a Skinner box C R Hallpike: 42
• On the stabilization of behavioral selection Werner K Honig: 48
• Linear and circular causal sequences H C Plotkin and F J OdlingSmee: 54
• Perspectives by consequences Duane M Rumbaugh: 60
• Selection misconstrued Stephen C Stearns: 67
• Giving up the ghost William Vaughan Jr: 73
• Methods and theories in the experimental analysis of behavior: 77
• Some overt behavior is neither elicited nor emitted Wayne Hershberger: 107
• The role of the statistician in psychology F 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
• Waiting for the world to make me talk and tell me what I meant: 168
• 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: 194
• Mental yes private no Howard Rachlin: 200
• B F Skinners theorizing Douglas Stalker and Paul Ziff: 206
• On the operational definition of a toothache Colin Wright: 213
• An operant analysis of problem solving: 218
• Can we analyze Skinners problemsolving behavior in operant terms?: 239
• Psychology as moral rhetoric Rom Harr: 245
• Contingencies rules and the problem of novel behavior Pere Julia: 253
• Is there such a thing as a problem situation? Kiell Raaheim: 259
• New wine in old glasses? Joseph M Scandura: 265
• Answers to questions you probably dont: 272
• Behaviorism at fifty: 278
• The fruitful metaphor but a metaphor nonetheless Marc Belth: 295
• Undifferentiated and motebeam percepts in WatsonianSkinnerian: 302
• A causal role for conscious seeing Robert M Gordon: 309
• B F Skinners confused philosophy of science Laurence Hitterdale: 316
• Artificially intelligent mental models Michael Lebowitz: 323
• Philosophy and the future of behaviorism M Jackson Mark: 331
• The phylogeny and ontogeny of behavior: 382
• Ontogenetic or phylogenetic another afterpain of the fallacious: 404
• 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 Ghiseun: 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
• Problems of selection and phylogeny terms and methods: 474
• Biographical sketch and bibliography of works: 489
• Acknowledgments and notes: 496
• Name index: 527
• Subject index: 535

Popular passages

Page 494 - Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own specified world to bring them up in and I'll guarantee to take any one at random and train him to become any type of specialist I might select — doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant chief, and yes, even beggar-man and thief, regardless of his talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations, and race of his ancestors.

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 Harnad
• Edition: illustrated, reprint
• Publisher: CUP Archive, 1988
• ISBN: 0521348617, 9780521348614
• Length: 563 pages
• Subjects: Psychology / Applied Psychology; Psychology / Cognitive Psychology & Cognition