The American psychologist, B.F. Skinner, was one of the primary proponents of the Behaviorist School. Known for his work on operant conditioning and reinforcement, he encouraged the deterministic view that consequences enormously influence behavior. For example, in Beyond Freedom and Dignity he argues that freedom is an illusion and that one’s environment controls a person.
In Skinner’s world, emotions determine our decisions, and dignity is an illusion, as our biology governs humanity. The separation between mind and body and past and present are false dichotomies. As such, the tug of war between nature and nature that permits the possibility of free will does not really exist.
“(T)he body” is a subtle refutation of the conclusion that our greatest life memories are incidental by-products of our chemistry. Our independent reflections on past experiences give us the liberty of separating the past from the present.
