B. F. Skinner Quotes

1904–1990 United States

Burrhus Frederic Skinner (20 March 1904 – 18 August 1990) was an American behaviorist, author, inventor, baseball enthusiast, social philosopher and poet.

United States
Academics
Philosophers
Poets
Psychologists

Also known as: B.F. Skinner, Burrhus Frederic Skinner

Random B. F. Skinner quote

18 quotes

The way positive reinforcement is carried out is more important than the amount.

Meditations for Parents Who Do Too Much (1993)

Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten.

It is the teacher's function to contrive conditions under which students learn. Their relevance to a future usefulness need not be obvious.

The real question is not whether machines think but whether men do. The mystery which surrounds a thinking machine already surrounds a thinking man.

Contingencies of Reinforcement: A Theoretical Analysis (1969)

Let men be happy, informed, skillful, well behaved, and productive.

The real problem is not whether machines think but whether men do.

It has always been the task of formal education to set up behavior which would prove useful or enjoyable later in a student's life.

Performance-based Assessment for Middle and High School Physical Education (2002)

Society attacks early, when the individual is helpless.

Walden Two (1948)

We admire people to the extent that we cannot explain what they do, and the word "admire" then means "marvel at."

Beyond Freedom and Dignity (1971)

A vast technology has been developed to prevent, reduce, or terminate exhausting labor and physical damage. It is now dedicated to the production of the most trivial conveniences and comfort.

Reflections on Behaviorism and Society (1978)

It is a mistake to suppose that the whole issue is how to free man. The issue is to improve the way in which he is controlled.

A person who has been punished is not thereby simply less inclined to behave in a given way; at best, he learns how to avoid punishment.

Beyond Freedom and Dignity (1971)

I do not admire myself as a person. My successes do not override my shortcomings.

The strengthening of behavior which results from reinforcement is appropriately called "conditioning". In operant conditioning we "strengthen" an operant in the sense of making a response more probable or, in actual fact, more frequent.

Science and Human Behavior (1953)

We shouldn't teach great books; we should teach a love of reading. Knowing the contents of a few works of literature is a trivial achievement. Being inclined to go on reading is a great achievement.

B. F. Skinner : The Man and His Ideas (1968)

Man's power appears to have increased out of all proportion to his wisdom. He has never been in a better position to build a healthy, happy, and productive world; yet things have perhaps never seemed so black.

Science and Human Behavior (1953)

I did not direct my life. I didn't design it. I never made decisions. Things always came up and made them for me. That's what life is.

Ethical control may survive in small groups, but the control of the population as a whole must be delegated to specialists—to police, priests, owners, teachers, therapists, and so on, with their specialized reinforcers and their codified contingencies.

Beyond Freedom and Dignity (1971)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: B. F. Skinner (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.