Description

BF Skinner March 20 1904 August 18 1990 was an American psychologist behaviorist author inventor and social philosopher Considering free will to be an illusion Skinner saw human action as dependent on consequences of previous actions a theory he would articulate as the principle of reinforcement If the consequences to an action are bad there is a high chance the action will not be repeated if the consequences are good the probability of the action being repeated becomes stronger Contemporary academia considers Skinner along with John B Watson and Ivan Pavlov a pioneer of modern behaviorism The following speech was recorded in 1990 shortly before his death