Walden Two

B. F. Skinner

Hackett Publishing

About this ebook

This fictional outline of a modern utopia has been a center of controversy ever since its publication in 1948. Set in the United States, it pictures a society in which human problems are solved by a scientific technology of human conduct.

Ratings and reviews

While this is not a novel in the conventional sense, I did find the archtypes represented by the main characters quite compelling. Steve and Mary are normal working class people. Roger and Barbara are a notch or two higher, but not members of the elite. Roger has a social conscious, Barbara does not. Burris is the man of science and probably represents the perspective of Skinner himself. Castle is the social science academic, concerned with ideals rather than real life. In one sense, he is the most utopian of the lot. Frazier is the social reformer who does not have patience with either the careful procedures of science or the ideals of academia. To put him into Skinner's youth, he is the labor organizer, the anarchist, the marxist, the revolutionary. Skinner paints Walden Two as a real accomplished fact, most likely to confound the debates of academia. It is stunning that this work was published in 1948. It anticipates the recently emerged psychology of happiness and in some ways behavioral economics and even some of the recent advances in brain science. Skinner has a keen eye for the shortcomings of conventional government, economics and the academy. But I think he remained the scientist to the end in his decision to have Burris forego membership at Walden Two.

This was a very inspirational book, and considering the time that it was written, was even a little ahead of its time. The well thought out arguments it presented were answered in a very thoughtful way. Great read.

Very interesting but the formatting is awful. It has hard coded page numbers so if reading with scaled text ever couple screens there is a number surrounded by braces in the middle of the text.

About the author

Burrhus Frederic Skinner (1904–1990), regarded by many as the most important and influential psychologist since Freud, earned his doctorate in psychology at Harvard University in 1931. Following appointments at the University of Minnesota and Indiana University, he returned to Harvard in 1948. He remained there for the rest of his career, retiring in 1974 as Edgar Pierce Professor of Psychology.