“Does a poet create, originate, initiate the thing called a poem, or is his behavior merely the product of his genetic and environmental histories?” DoePoetProductsBehaviorEnvironmentalInitiateEnvironmental History Book:Cumulative Record: Definitive Edition Source: Cumulative Record: Definitive Edition
“No theory changes what it is a theory about. Nothing is changed because we look at it, talk about it, or analyze it in a new way. Keats drank confusion to Newton for analyzing the rainbow, but the rainbow remained as beautiful as ever and became for many even more beautiful. Man has not changed because we look at him, talk about him, and analyze him scientifically. ... What does change is our chance of doing something about the subject of a theory. Newton's analysis of the light in a rainbow was a step in the direction of the laser.” MenWayLooksDoeLightBeautifulChanceStepsSubjectsChangedTheoryConfusionAnalysisRainbowNew WaysDrankNewtonAnalyzingLasers Author:B. F. Skinner
“A fourth-grade reader may be a sixth-grade mathematician. The grade is an administrative device which does violence to the nature of the developmental process.” MayDoeLanguageProcessEducationViolenceReaderGradesDevicesFourthMathematicianAdministrativeDevelopmentalSixth GradeFourth GradeBehaviorism Book:WALDEN TWO Source: WALDEN TWO
“Unable to understand how or why the person we see behaves as he does, we attribute his behavior to a person we cannot see, whose behavior we cannot explain either but about whom we are not inclined to ask questions.” PersonsDoeAsksJusticeBehaviorSocial JusticeBehaveAttributes Author:B. F. Skinner
“In the traditional view, a person is free. He is autonomous in the sense that his behavior is uncaused. He can therefore be held responsible for what he does and justly punished if he offends. That view, together with its associated practices, must be re-examined when a scientific analysis reveals unsuspected controlling relations between behavior and environment.” IfsPersonsDoeTogetherViewsPracticeEnvironmentBehaviorRelationResponsibleTraditionalAnalysisAutonomous Author:B. F. Skinner
“Death does not trouble me. I have no fear of supernatural punishments, of course, nor could I enjoy an eternal life in which there would be nothing left for me to do, the task of living having been accomplished.” DoeWould BeCoursesLeftLanguageEnjoyEducationTroubleEternalTasksPunishmentAccomplishedNo FearEternal LifeHave No FearBehaviorism Author:B. F. Skinner
“The speaker does not feel the grammatical rules he is said to apply in composing sentences, and men spoke grammatically for thousands of years before anyone knew there were rules.” MenFeelsYearsDoeSaidSentencesSpokesSpeakersGrammarComposing Author:B. F. Skinner
“The juvenile delinquent does not feel his disturbed personality. The intelligent man does not feel his intelligence or the introvert his introversion.” MenFeelsDoePersonalityIntelligentIntrovertDisturbedJuvenileIntroversionIntelligent ManDelinquents Author:B. F. Skinner
