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Philosophical Implications
By: Jenifer Lissett
Free Will and Determinism
What is free will and determinism?
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If we can change our behavior because we choose to, this can lead to freewill implications. People can change the course of action they take in their life. This opposes determinism because if we can choose to change, even if for a school project, it is something we chose to do. In other words, it was not something that was determined.
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This idea directly rejects what Skinner believed about free will. He thought that if you could control the environment, then you could control a person’s behavior. This denies free will because, while people assume that they are choosing to act this way, previous interactions with our environment will control how we act in the future.
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Skinners implications on Determinism:
Determinism directly rejects free will, and thus agrees with Skinner's ideas on human behavior. Our acts are determined by previous interactions. In a classroom, a student may not show up to class once and face a negative reinforcer. Next time, when faced with a choice, the student will decide to enter the class. Our actions, each time we have a decision to make, are not up to us. Rather, it is up to our previous experiences with a similar situation.
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Political and Social Structures
Philosophy of Law:
Is implementing a behavior change technique beneficial for the enforcement of laws? By this, is influencing the behavior of people through a political system something that can be considered moral? Is this removing a person’s supposed free will? Can a country determine how a citizen will act? How can a government, company, or employer implement these within their practice without facing calls of denying humans their inalienable rights?
These are all questions that philosophers of law would ask if Skinner's ideas were taken seriously. The level of control offered by Skinner's conclusions allows for governments to control their citizen's behavior. Unwanted behavior could be negatively reinforced. Say a country did not want its citizens to oppose a policy, all they would have to do is control the environment around such policy to get people to respond in the desired way when hearing about such a policy.
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Skinner's conclusion does not only affect laws, they can also affect political structures. Political Structures can be created that can control a person’s behavior if one takes Skinner’s ideas to heart. It is believed that if the environment can be controlled then so can people and their behavior. So, all governmental structure has to do is to control the environment to create their perfect citizens.
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Chinese Social Credit System:
This is an example of a country attempting to get good behavior from its citizens. If it works, we don’t know yet. It is a grand social experiment to test out Skinner’s ideas to see if creating reinforcers and punishers will work in crafting a perfect society
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