Behavioral science as the art of the 21st century philosophical similarities between B.F. Skinner's radical behaviorism and postmodern science.

Abstract

Since B.F. Skinner's death in 1990, psychologists taking a historical approach are beginning to clear misconceptions of his philosophy: radical behaviorism. Contrary to the belief of many, radical behaviorism, continues to grow and branch into new areas. This paper attempts to explore the history of Skinner's assertions and place them within the context of contemporary western thought. Parallels are drawn between Skinner's science and diverse areas such as evolutionary biology and postmodern philosophy. The social construction of knowledge is one of the many lasting legacies of Skinner's work.

Some preliminary notes on utopianism, postmodernism and behavior analysis

“…Pointed out as a key characteristic of postmodern science, the decline of determinism is recognized by different disciplines, such as physics (Eddington, 1932), chemistry (Prigogine, 1997) and biology (Mayr, 2004). Focusing on these points and others, several behavior analysts had already examined relations between behavior analysis and postmodernism (Abib, 1999;Cautilli, Rosenwasser, & Hantula, 2003;Czubaroff, 1991;Laurenti, 2012;Moxley, 1999Moxley, , 2001Roche & Barnes-Holmes, 2003).…”