#school of behaviorism

[vegalcor-blog]

[mona-the-monkey]

The school of behaviorism tries to reduce all mental activity, all thought, to mere physical, material reactions.  B.F. Skinner, who wrote "Beyond Freedom and Dignity," argued that our idea of freedom is really an illusion, as is also our concept of dignity because we are simply determined masses of matter who have no freedom whatsoever.  Thus, it must necessarily follow that we are predetermined in our thought processes simply by what we eat or drink or otherwise materially come up against in our lives. And that therefore the conclusions we come to in our thinking are rigidly predetermined by these forces.

Now, if this is the case, is it not illogical for Mr. Skinner to try to put forth such an argument, or any argument (for they are non-material), and to try to sway ones thinking while at the same time positing that we are nothing more than a product of material collision, if you will.

Also, if we are to except Mr. Skinner's line of thinking that freedom and dignity are not real, then we must also except that concepts such as slavery and indignity are not real as well and that if one commits what we hold to be a heinous crime, such as rape, we must except the fact that there was no act of freedom on the part of the perpetrator, nor was there any true indignity on the part of the victim, or even the perpetrator for that matter.

Not only does Mr. Skinner's argument strike me as logically false, but also very, very dangerous.

I further believe we must remember that the mind does not equal the brain.  The brain is an organ that has mass and takes up space, but the mind is separate from that and is ethereal.  So we should not confuse the physical with the mental.  And be wary of schools of thought such as behaviorism, for they reduce us to little more than, say, the automobile, which is acted upon by outside forces and operates (behaves) only at their control.