Editing B. F. Skinner (section)

== Political views ==
Skinner's political writings emphasized his hopes that an effective and human science of behavioral control – a technology of human behavior – could help with problems as yet unsolved and often aggravated by advances in technology such as the [[atomic bomb]]. Indeed, one of Skinner's goals was to prevent humanity from destroying itself.<ref>see Beyond Freedom and Dignity, 1974 for example</ref> He saw political activity as the use of aversive or non-aversive means to control a population. Skinner favored the use of [[positive reinforcement]] as a means of control, citing [[Jean-Jacques Rousseau]]'s novel ''[[Emile: or, On Education]]'' as an example of literature that "did not fear the power of positive reinforcement."<ref name="W2"/>

Skinner's book, ''Walden Two'', presents a vision of a decentralized, localized society, which applies a practical, scientific approach and behavioral expertise to deal peacefully with social problems. (For example, his views led him to oppose corporal punishment in schools, and he wrote a letter to the California Senate that helped lead it to a ban on spanking.<ref>{{cite news |first=Nanette |last=Asimov |title=Spanking Debate Hits Assembly |work=SFGate|publisher=San Francisco Chronicle |date=January 30, 1996 |url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/1996/01/30/MN71634.DTL&hw=spanking+debate&sn=009&sc=334 |access-date=March 2, 2008}}</ref>) Skinner's [[utopia]] is both a thought experiment and a [[rhetoric]]al piece. In ''Walden Two'', Skinner answers the problem that exists in many utopian novels – "What is the Good Life?" The book's answer is a life of friendship, health, art, a healthy balance between work and leisure, a minimum of unpleasantness, and a feeling that one has made worthwhile contributions to a society in which resources are ensured, in part, by minimizing consumption. 
{{blockquote|If the world is to save any part of its resources for the future, it must reduce not only consumption but the number of consumers.|B. F. Skinner| ''Walden Two'' (1948)|source=p.&nbsp;xi}}
Skinner described his novel as "my New Atlantis", in reference to [[Francis Bacon (philosopher)|Bacon]]'s [[New Atlantis|utopia]].<ref>A matter of Consequences, p.&nbsp;412.</ref> {{blockquote|When [[Paradise Lost|Milton's Satan]] falls from heaven, he ends in hell. And what does he say to reassure himself? 'Here, at least, we shall be free.' And that, I think, is the fate of the old-fashioned liberal. He's going to be free, but he's going to find himself in hell.|B. F. Skinner| from William F. Buckley Jr, ''On the Firing Line'', p.&nbsp;87.}}