Pseudo-Science of B. F. Skinner

By Tibor R. Machan

Book Overview

The Pseudo-Science of B.F. Skinner was Professor Tibor Machan's first book. Now, nearly forty years after its initial publication and after three dozen additional books published by Machan, it is available again through University Press of America. This study is still alive with its initial inquiry into the work of B.F. Skinner, and it is just as influential upon young students today as it was forty years ago.

Was Skinner a bona fide scientist or an amateur metaphysician? Was Skinner correct to hold that only what can be observed matters when it comes to understanding ourselves? Was he correct that free will is fictional and morality is pre-scientific? Professor Machan's fascinating inquiry into Skinner's radical studies is a salute and a challenge to the corpus of his work.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0761836543
• ISBN13: 9780761836544
• Release Date: December 2006
• Publisher: University Press of America
• Length: 226 Pages
• Weight: 0.77 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.3" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Not all of what science studies needs be deterministic

The most important thing Machan shows is that science should not prejudge how what it studies must behave. That's supposed to be a matter of discovery. So if it turns out, for example, that human beings cause some of their actions or have free will, that is what the science of human behavior, pace Skinner, must record. Otherwise science is prejudiced.