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- CONTROLS ARE INEVITABLE
SKINNER IN LD DEBATEBecause of his belief that ethical and moral concepts do not exist, Skinner’s uses in debate are quite interesting. One of the best uses for his ethical and moral skepticism is as an answer to questions of either ethics or morals. If defending a side of a resolution where you must defend some concrete action against some type of metaphysical value, B.F. Skinner would be a good author advocate to use. Another interesting use of B.F. Skinner in LD debate is using some of B.F Skinner’s ideas when selecting value and criteria. If you use Skinner’s behaviorism as a criteria, that would be a weighing mechanism focusing solely on what individuals do to the exclusion of a value based decision calculus. This could be valuable if you need to defend a totalitarian or authoritarian model of government. Skinner could also be used in the defense of a totalitarian government since in "Walden 2" he relied on behavior modification to create a utopian society. Skinner could also be used in LD debate to support the concept of counter-control as effective means for fighting control. Skinner argues throughout his works that in order to fight the oppressive controlling nature of things effective methods of counter-control are necessary in order to defend oneself against even greater control. Skinner can also function as an answer to all control being bad. Skinner's advocacy can be used to show that control is not intrinsically bad, but is dependent on the way it is used. A final use of Skinner's philosophy can be to challenge the way an opponent defines a value. Pointing out the contradictions in a value may not win you the round, but it will force you opponent to clarify what they mean. Skinner explains that terms like "liberty" and "peace" do not have any meaning that applies to everyone who hears them. If your opponent is supporting a value, you could ask them to narrow what they mean by that value. Point out that factors of "liberty" such as personal or societal liberty could contradict, undermining their value. BIBLIOGRAPHYSkinner, B.F. THE BEHAVIOR OF ORGANISMS: AN EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSIS. New York: Appleton-Century, 1938. Skinner, B.F. WALDEN TWO. New York: Macmillan, 1948. Skinner, B.F. SCIENCE AND HUMAN BEHAVIOR. New York: Macmillan, 1953. Skinner, B.F. SCHEDULES OF REINFORCEMENT. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1957. (with C. B. Ferster [1]) Skinner, B.F. VERBAL BEHAVIOR. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1957. Skinner, B.F. THE ANALYSIS OF BEHAVIOR: A PROGRAM FOR SELF-INSTRUCTION. New York: McGraw Hill, 1961. (with J. G. Holland [1]) Skinner, B.F. THE TECHNOLOGY OF TEACHING. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1968. Skinner, B.F. CONTINGENCIES OF REINFORCEMENT: A THEORETICAL ANALYSIS. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1969. Skinner, B.F. BEYOND FREEDOM AND DIGNITY. New York: Knopf, 1971. Skinner, B.F. ABOUT BEHAVIORISM. New York: Knopf, 1974. Skinner, B.F. REFLECTIONS ON BEHAVIORISM AND SOCIETY. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1978. Skinner, B.F. A MATTER OF CONSEQUENCES. New York: Knopf, 1983. Skinner, B.F. RECENT ISSUES IN THE ANALYSIS OF BEHAVIOR. Columbus, OH: Merrill, 1989. CONTROLS ARE INEVITABLE1. CLAIMS AGAINST CONTROL ARE ANOTHER TYPE OF CONTROL Paul Sagal, Philosopher, B.F. SKINNER, 1981. p. 95. “When strong reinforcers are no longer effective, lesser reinforcers take over” (178). Voicing the words “freedom” and “dignity” acts as a reinforcer to members of the leisure class. At the same time, the facts about freedom and dignity - that is, free and dignified behavior - have become weaker and weaker general reinforcers. For example, well-off people who do not have to work for a living have more time and thus better means to protect their dignified holdings and their free status from the threats of those who have neither time nor means. Inevitably the verbalizations of the latter about how good it would be to be “free” and “dignified” are reinforced by those who have something to gain by defending the words “freedom” and “dignity”. If freedom from the need to work gives one the dignity to use all one’s time in the pursuit of art, music, and literature. And if such pursuits are the highest good, the no decent person should object to reinforcing leisure for others as well as for himself. “Doing as one pleases” seems to many people to be good, but whether the doing or the saying of it is more reinforcing is problematic. Wealthy people who apparently have gained dignity and freedom reinforce the laboring of others by hiring them and them complimenting them on how well they do what they have been hired to do as well as paying them. For Skinner the survival of a culture is threatened by its own verbalized values unless those values are also activated and thus made reinforcing to the whole group. Leisure is not, in fact, and unequivocal good: “Leisure is one of the great challenges to those who are concerned with the survival of a culture because any attempt to control what a person does when he does not need to do anything is particularly likely to be attacked as unwarranted meddling” (180). 2. CONTROL IS INEVITABLE AND FOCUSING ON "FREEDOM" AND "DIGNITY" INTERUPTS ALL CULTURAL EVOLUTION Paul Sagal, Philosopher, B.F. SKINNER, 1981. p. 96. Because Skinner could predict hostile responses from those who were reinforced for defending freedom and dignity - at any level - he needed to distinguish between good and bad substitutes for “freedom.” Noting that any “use of a technology of behavior is a serious matter,” he suggested that such a miscarriage could be avoided by “looking not at punitive controllers but at the contingencies under which they control. It is not the benevolence of a controller but the contingencies under which he control benevolently which must be examined. All control is reciprocal, and an interchange between control and counter control is essential to the evolution of a culture. The interchange is disturbed by the literatures of freedom and dignity, which interpret counter control as the suppression rather than the correction of controlling practices” (182-183).
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