Behaviorist thinking originally promised equality by stressing human similarity

Evidence

In Meyer’s thinking, the shift in perspective from “the human being as a soul” to “the human being as an organism” explained “why the trend of history is in the direction of democracy.” As science overtakes civilization, Meyer assumed a new global recognition of equality and democratic fellowship rooted in the basic fact of our overwhelming similarity as fellow organisms. The divisions that haunt society, politics, and economics based on class, wealth, liberality, race, and so on would become ridiculous: “In real world-wide human life, the differences among individuals are entirely swamped by their likenesses. To him who accepts the scientific view that human society is a group of organisms, it is an absurd proposition to divide… into… classes.…” — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1158

Categorization

• XREF: Counters the common assumption that behaviorism was inherently dehumanizing; ties to the broader historical point that liberatory thinkers embraced the organism view. — connects to: Formal similarity of social position creates solidarity regardless of personal character — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 595; Yale behaviorists blended Hullian learning theory with psychoanalysis and Marxism — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 333

Broader Connections

• Yale behaviorists blended Hullian learning theory with psychoanalysis and Marxism #expands (0.85) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 333
• Formal similarity of social position creates solidarity regardless of personal character #qualifies (0.80) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 595