Behaviorism holds that free will is just ignorance of behavioral determinants
Evidence
In nearly every book and article, Skinner declared the truth that Planck taught Meyer and Meyer imparted to his students, the single truth that can be grasped only through the viewpoint of the Other-One: freedom is ignorance. The felt experience of free will is but a bit of undigested denial, produced by a lack of information about the actual determinants of behavior. Like Meyer and Planck before him, Skinner regarded freedom as an “accident,” arguing that the very notion of “accident” is illusory, a snapshot in time that reveals a lacuna waiting to be filled and eventually transformed by advancing knowledge into an expression of a lawful, predictable pattern. — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1164
Categorization
- DEFINE: Defines the core behaviorist doctrine ‘freedom is ignorance’ — the linchpin of Skinner’s system that Zuboff will connect to surveillance capitalism.
- XREF: Connects to Foucault’s analysis of disciplinary power and to later chapters’ argument about behavioral modification — a central plank of the Google/Big Other analysis. — connects to: American public rejected behaviorism’s claims over individual freedom — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1022; Belief in free will functions as a defense against acknowledging environmental determinism — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1154; Skinner treats free will as a fiction covering ignorance — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1160 (+10 more)
Broader Connections
- The physics view of behavior treats freedom as mere unexplained ignorance
#corroborates(0.85) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1315 - Behaviorism treated freedom and ignorance as synonyms
#exemplifies(0.80) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1152 - Behaviorists see free will as unmeasurable stimuli, with God as a reinforcement schedule
#qualifies(0.75) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1166 - Free-will debate often collapses into accepted ignorance of divine foreknowledge
#qualifies(0.70)