Skinner treats free will as a fiction covering ignorance

Evidence

From the opening page of Skinner’s first book, The Behavior of Organisms, published in 1938, he sounds Meyer’s (and Planck’s) caution: freedom is merely ignorance waiting to be conquered. “Primitive systems of behavior” assign causality to “entities beyond man.” Equally inadequate are the “advanced systems of behavior” that ascribe control to vague fictions such as the “self” or “free will.” “The inner organism,” he wrote, “may in resignation be called free, as in the case of ‘free will,’ when no further investigation is held to be possible.” — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1160

Categorization

• XREF: Directly relevant to any argument that behaviorism denies the inner self; connects to Zuboff’s earlier chapters by prefiguring how surveillance capitalism treats inward experience as disposable. — connects to: Skinner held that gaining knowledge destroys the illusion of free will — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1153; Skinner saw belief in free will as blocking rational social advance. — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1171; Behaviorism holds that free will is just ignorance of behavioral determinants — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1164 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Skinner held that gaining knowledge destroys the illusion of free will #corroborates (0.95) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1153
• Behaviorism holds that free will is just ignorance of behavioral determinants #corroborates (0.95) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1164
• Skinner saw belief in free will as blocking rational social advance. #expands (0.80) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1171