What Skinner means by Determinism
If you were to open a Merriam Webster dictionary it would define determinism as: The belief that all events are caused by things that happened before them and that people have no real ability to make choices or control what happens.
When Skinner talked about determinism he believed that when someone becomes something they were always "destine" to become this certain thing. Skinner believed that the individual became this way because of his or her heredity and social conditioning.
An example of this would be, when an individual becomes a criminal they were always going to become a criminal. Some factors that would play into this person becoming a criminals are, being born into poverty, having a parent or parents who were criminals, etc.
Below I have posted two links. The first link is from a college journal on determinism. It is rather long and complicated, but under the heading "Lecture on B.F. Skinner's Determinism" there is a very good paragraph on determinism. The second link is a video on determinism. The video gives a good visual on determinism and really helps to understand it better.
Links:
http://educ.jmu.edu//~omearawm/ph101skinner
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8QIRao74tI&list=PLOcR9huqgNxdsvWvrR12IQeiFrgD-HSWk
When Skinner talked about determinism he believed that when someone becomes something they were always "destine" to become this certain thing. Skinner believed that the individual became this way because of his or her heredity and social conditioning.
An example of this would be, when an individual becomes a criminal they were always going to become a criminal. Some factors that would play into this person becoming a criminals are, being born into poverty, having a parent or parents who were criminals, etc.
Below I have posted two links. The first link is from a college journal on determinism. It is rather long and complicated, but under the heading "Lecture on B.F. Skinner's Determinism" there is a very good paragraph on determinism. The second link is a video on determinism. The video gives a good visual on determinism and really helps to understand it better.
Links:
http://educ.jmu.edu//~omearawm/ph101skinner
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8QIRao74tI&list=PLOcR9huqgNxdsvWvrR12IQeiFrgD-HSWk