: : Skinner was an advocate of punishment/reward reinforcement as a means of controlling human beaviour...: This proves that if you read Skinner you failed to understand him. No one opposed punishment more vigorously. Perhaps you only read Chomsky's hachet-job review of Beyond Freedom and Dignity?
Piper: Skinner said that punishment could be (and was) used as a way to control human behaviour. I did not mean to imply that he either approved or diapproved of it, merely taht he held it as a theoretical outlook.
Punishment as a means of controlling behaviour IS a Skinnerian theory whether he thought it was ethical or no.
I am well aware of the story of skinner refusing to tell a student to knock on his door because he so disavowed punishment.
: : So is Mr Stoller trying to use punishment (consciously or unconsciously- whoops sorry that isn't behaviourist) against those who oppose his views in the hope that he will either extinguish our responses or drive us away?
: Your resolution to not debate me perhaps needs renewal---or is the 'environment' too strong to resist?
Piper: If you thought about that stoller you'd realise what a poor explanation it was.
BTW stoller punishment doesn't work, no matter how effective skinner thought it was.
