Customer Reviews

The Pseudo-Science of B. F. Skinner

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Machan needs to touch up on the assumptions that are made by ALL scientists. What science decides is its subject matter must be orderly and deterministic. This is crucial for all sciences. For Machan to claim that Skinner's work is not science because it is deterministic is fundamentally wrong, and I suggest he consider at least the past few hundred years of science before he sets out on writing another book.

This is painful. The other comments rating this low are spot-on. Assuming a deterministic paradigm is not outside science's normal workings, in fact as a pragmatic assumption it serves science the best. Recent exceptions in physics are not the rule, and are not appropriately extended metaphorically to the idea of "uncaused causes" that Skinner rallied against. As for the gentleman who accuses Skinner of starting with a conclusion, he clearly has not studied the inductive nature of Skinner's research very closely. This is yet another example of someone criticizing work that they clearly don't even understand.

B.F. Skinner is the greatest scientist of our time. The author doesn't like his conclusions so rejects him. Just like when people couldn't accept the earth revolved the sun people always villify what they don't understand. This is more than pathetic. the author is an embarrassment to science. Please buy books by B.F. Skinner. He is not afraid to reveal the truth through true science.

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.