Redefining Reality - The Intellectual Implications of Modern Science

environmental factors affected subjects and how positive and
negative reinforcement could predictably change the mathematical
relationship between the stimulus and response.
The ability to use psychological research not only for pure
purposes of gaining knowledge about the structure of reality but
, Skinner argues that people are not
autonomous agents, rationally deliberating on hard questions and
coming up with creative answers. Instead, we are creatures of habit,
and these habits can be shaped to limit human growth or to further
human advancement.
Like Pavlov’s dogs, we are malleable, and the best course of
human development and set up the conditions—the positive
and negative consequences—that will shape people into the
form we want. The myth of free will is a barrier to human
advancement and satisfaction.
This is exactly the notion behind the plotline of the Anthony
.
his academic post at Johns Hopkins University, he took a position
at the J. Walter Thompson advertising agency. The expertise he
for the enrichment of business owners by manipulating the masses.
Edward Bernays, the nephew of Sigmund Freud, also came to
realize the power that could be attached to psychological research.
After a stint with the government, he opened an advertising
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