B.F. Skinner and Utopia

The design of B.F. Skinner's imaginary utopia, Walden Two, is based on the principles of behavioral engineering perceptible in 1945. Incorporating knowledge of natural human tendencies, these principles uphold the use of positive reinforcement, rules requir-ing all members of the community to work, and other Walden Two practices. By presenting guidelines for human management in the context of a functioning community, Skinner encourages readers

to contrast the Walden Two ideal of a workable community with the practices observed in contemporary society.

Many people live today in urban areas where they maintain few close ties to their neighbors and have to guard their personal property from others seeking to gain it through means ranging from

sales pitches to theft. Walden Two is portrayed as a small

community, whose members partake of both work and recreational activities together. When people outside the community join as new members, they become immediate participants in the communal life-style. They agree to work according to the commune's schedules and not to claim any share of the results of their labors. They can leave at any time, taking with them any belongings brought in when they joined, but they cannot take along anything produced at Walden Two. Those who stay are entitled to a share of all the products of the commune, even after they are no longer productive themselves. In contrast to existing societies where many elderly people are inadequately provided for, t

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1). On the whole, the techniques used in Walden Two are designed to make the commune's children acquire the capacity to adjust, by setting up a system of gradually increasing frustrations and annoyances against a stable background (Skinner 101). Jealousy, contempt and superiority are among the other qualities inhibited. While a real world child may be erratically punished for antisocial behavior and may never learn how to handle destructive emotions, the children at Walden Two are systematically taught how to conduct themselves to achieve what is termed the "satisfaction of pleasant and profitable social relations" (Skinner 102). Their work and aspirations are not limited by destructive feelings and frustra-tions such as those experienced by most people raised outside of Skinner's commune. Real world children are often compelled to spend long hours in school classrooms, where they study set subjects that may either bore or fail to interest them. Schooling in Walden Two takes place in a building with open doors, through which children freely pass. They do not need the formal education in desirable cultural and intellectual habits that many real world children require, because they pick up the desired attitudes as part of livin

Category: Psychology - B