December 2021
Beyond Freedom and Dignity. Chapter 7: The Evolution of a Culture. Quote 6
“Why should I be concerned about the survival of a particular kind of economic system?” The only honest answer to that kind of question seems to be this: “There is no good reason why you should be concerned, but if your culture has not convinced you that there is, so much the worse for your […]
Beyond Freedom and Dignity. Chapter 7: The Evolution of a Culture. Quote 1
A culture, like a species, is selected by its adaptation to an environment: to the extent that it helps its members to get what they need and avoid what is dangerous, it helps them to survive and transmit the culture. The two kinds of evolution are closely interwoven. (p. 129)
Beyond Freedom and Dignity. Chapter 6: Values. Quote 17
A technology of behavior is available which would more successfully reduce the aversive consequences of behavior, proximate or deferred, and maximize the achievements of which the human organism is capable, but the defenders of freedom oppose its use. (p. 125)
Beyond Freedom and Dignity. Chapter 6: Values. Quote 16
A man who has been alone since birth will have no verbal behavior, will not be aware of himself as a person, will possess no techniques of self-management, and with respect to the world around him will have only those meager skills which can be acquired in one short lifetime from nonsocial contingencies. (p. 123)
Beyond Freedom and Dignity. Chapter 6: Values. Quote 15
Verbal behavior presumably arose under contingencies involving practical social interactions, but the individual who becomes both a speaker and a listener is in possession of a repertoire of extraordinary scope and power, which he may use by himself. (pp. 122-123)
Beyond Freedom and Dignity. Chapter 6: Values. Quote 13
The contingencies of survival could not generate a process of conditioning which took into account how behavior produced its consequences. The only useful relation was temporal: a process could evolve in which a reinforcer strengthened any behavior it followed. (p. 120)
Beyond Freedom and Dignity. Chapter 6: Values. Quote 11
The distinction between feelings and contingencies is particularly important when practical action must be taken . . . What must be changed are the contingencies, whether we regard them as responsible for the defective behavior or for the feelings said to explain the behavior. (p. 118)
Beyond Freedom and Dignity. Chapter 6: Values. Quote 10
As Maslow pointed out, valueless-ness is “variously described as anomie, amorality, anhedonia, rootlessness, emptiness, hopelessness, the lack of something to believe in and be devoted to.” These terms all seem to refer to feelings or states of mind, but what are missing are effective reinforcers. (p. 118)
Beyond Freedom and Dignity. Chapter 6: Values. Quote 9
A person does not support a religion because he is devout; he supports it because of the contingencies arranged by the religious agency. We call him devout and teach him to call himself devout and report what he feels as “devotion.” (pp. 116-117)