Instrumentarianism’s observational viewpoint originates in radical behaviorism’s view of humans as controlled organisms

Evidence

It is not surprising, therefore, that instrumentarianism’s specific “viewpoint of observation” was forged in the controversial intellectual domain known as “radical behaviorism” and its antecedents in turn-of-the-century theoretical physics. In the remainder of this chapter, our examination of power in the time of surveillance capitalism pivots to this point of origin far from totalitarianism’s murder and mayhem. It takes us to laboratories and classrooms and the realms of thought spun by men who regarded freedom as a synonym for ignorance and human beings as distant organisms imprisoned in patterns of behavior beyond their own comprehension or control, such as ants, bees, or Stuart MacKay’s herds of elk. — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1143

Categorization

• XREF: Echoes the Behave-style critique of behaviorism and the ‘freedom as illusion’ thesis — and parallels the reader’s prior work on behavioral surplus as the epistemic underpinning of prediction markets. — connects to: Radical behaviorism defines behavior only as what another organism observes — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1161; Behaviorism required psychologists to treat humans as visible objects, not inner selves — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1151; Treating humans as a swarm is the foundation of instrumentarian society. — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1391

Broader Connections

• Behaviorism required psychologists to treat humans as visible objects, not inner selves #expands (0.80) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1151