Behaviorism says self-control is just manipulating variables that determine behavior

Evidence

When a man controls himself, chooses a course of action, thinks out the solution to a problem, or strives toward an increase in self-knowledge, he is behaving. He controls himself precisely as he would control the behavior of anyone else—through the manipulation of variables of which behavior is a function. His behavior in so doing is a proper object of analysis, and eventually it must be accounted for with variables lying outside the individual himself. — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1163

Categorization

• DEFINE: Sketches the radical behaviorist collapse of selfhood into manipulable variables — the direct theoretical ancestor of behavioral surplus extraction.
• XREF: connects to: Behavioral engineered self-control masks society’s ultimate control over individuals — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1386; Behavior is regulated by legal, social, and self-evaluative sanctions; Behaviorism holds that free will is just ignorance of behavioral determinants — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1164 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Behaviorism holds that free will is just ignorance of behavioral determinants #expands (0.95) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1164
• Behavioral engineered self-control masks society’s ultimate control over individuals #expands (0.85) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1386
• Self-discipline can be externalized by physically constraining oneself #exemplifies (0.80)
• Self-binding as first move lets a present self control a future self #expands (0.80)
• Skinner envisioned a population-scale technology of behavioral control that rejected freedom #expands (0.80) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1012
• Behavior is regulated by legal, social, and self-evaluative sanctions #expands (0.75)
• Control is easiest to exercise at the incipient point of a behavior chain #expands (0.75)
• Behaviorism’s founding goal was prediction and control of behavior, not understanding #corroborates (0.70) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1148