Some early similarities and Later differences between Bertrand Russell and B. F. Skinner

Abstract

B. F. Skinner credited Bertrand Russell with converting him to behaviorism and with writing one of the books that most influenced him. Particularly in Skinner's early work, there are similarities between Skinner and Russell that extend across mathematics, determinism, positivism, verbal behavior, future communities, evolution, and pragmatism. Later, Skinner's views changed, and he parted company with Russell in most of these areas. Perhaps the most dramatic and fundamental departure came when Skinner embraced pragmatism, which Russell said he "hated." However, there was a time during which Russell wrote favorably of pragmatism as a view for science. Although the similarities between Skinner and Russell may have resulted from common cultural influences, Russell appears to deserve credit for leading Skinner into the stimulus-response behaviorism of two-term necessities; he may also deserve some credit for helping to lead him out of it and into the selectionist behaviorism of three-term contingencies.

Ernst Mach and B. F. Skinner: Their similarities with two traditions for verbal behavior

“…Both Russell and Wittgenstein showed some conflict for a time or at different times. Although speaking favorably of pragmatism at one time, Russell eventually castigated pragmatism as well as evolutionary selectionism (Moxley, 2003) whereas, in contrast to his early positivism, the later Wittgenstein has been seen as a pragmatist (e.g., Lakatos, 1978, p. 230n).…”

Upon Further Reflection—The Affinity of Noam Chomsky and B. F. Skinner

“…Similar to Chomsky, Skinner was also an admirer of Bertrand Russell, although there were some epistemological differences, particularly in Skinner's later writings (Moxley, 2003). Nevertheless, Skinner credited his early interest in behaviorism with Russell's writings on the objective formulation of behavior (Skinner, 1961b), and some of the similarities between Russell and Skinner's writings are quite striking.…”

In response

“…The literature relating Skinner's scientific views to philosophical pragmatism is over two decades old (e.g., Baum, 1994;Day, 1980Day, , 1983S. C. Hayes & Brownstein, 1986;Lamal, 1983;Leigland, 1997Leigland, , 1999Moxley, 2001Moxley, , 2001Moxley, /2002Moxley, , 2002Moxley, , 2003Schneider, 1997;Zuriff, 1980). In looking at this work and other work published on radical behaviorism, the question arises as to the role or function of such writings in the field of behavior analysis.…”

“…Pragmatism is often characterized in such terms as the notion that ideas are to be evaluated in terms of their usefulness (e.g., Hergenhahn, 2001), although such simple characterizations are easily misunderstood by critics (e.g., Moxley, 2003). Another way to summarize the most general descriptors of pragmatism is to say that it is antiessentialism, antipositivism, and antirepresentationalism applied to such traditional philosophical topics as meaning, language, truth, knowledge, morality, and so on (e.g., Murphy, 1990;Rorty, 1991; one brief description by Rorty runs as follows: "pragmatism, a movement which has specialized in debunking dualisms and in dissolving traditional problems created by those dualisms"; p. 126).…”