Walden Two
Encyclopedia
Walden Two is a utopian novel written by behavioral
psychologist B. F. Skinner
, first published in 1948. In its time, it could have been considered to be science fiction
, as the methods employed to alter people's behaviour did not yet exist.
The constitution provides for a "Board of Planners", which is Walden Two's "only government". "Board of Planners" is a name that "goes back to the days when Walden Two existed only on paper". "There are six Planners, usually three men and three women". "The Planners are charged with the success of the community. They make policies, review the work of the Managers, keep an eye on the state of the nation in general. They also have certain judicial functions." A Planner "may serve for ten years, but no longer." A vacancy on the Board of Planners is filled by the Board "from a pair of names supplied by the Managers".
Managers are "specialists in charge of the divisions and services of Walden Two". A member of the community can "work up to be a Manager--through intermediate positions which carry a good deal of responsibility and provide the necessary apprenticeship". The Managers are not elected by the members of Walden Two. The method of selecting Managers is not specified; however, since the Board of Planners is Walden Two's "only government", it is reasonable to suppose that Managers are appointed by the Board of Planners.
Walden Two has Planners, Managers, Workers, and Scientists. The Scientists conduct experiments "in plant and animal breeding, the control of infant behavior, educational processes of several sorts, and the use of some of our [Walden Two's] raw materials". The method of selecting Scientists is not specified but it is again reasonable to suppose that Scientists are appointed by the Board of Planners.
's book Walden
. In the novel, the Walden Community is mentioned as having the benefits of living in a place like Thoreau's Walden, but "with company". It is, as the book says, 'Walden for two' - meaning a community and not a place of solitude. Originally, Skinner indicated that he wanted to title it The Sun is but a Morning Star, a clear reference to Thoreau's Walden, but the publishers suggested the current title as an alternative.
In theory and in practice, Thoreau's Walden experiment and the Walden Two experiment were far different from one another. For instance, Thoreau's Walden espouses the virtues of self-reliance at the individual level, while Walden Two espouses (1) the virtues of self-reliance at the community level, and (2) Skinner's underlying premise that free will of the individual is weak compared to how environmental conditions shape behavior .
. Blair seeks out Frazier as the 'leader' and the two have discussions which comprise the essay. Skinner, as Frazier, mentions that Walden Two has "no institutionalized system of government, religion, or economics" and relates this to the goal of 19th century anarchism
.
Some of them include:
Twin Oaks is detailed in Kat Kinkade
's book, Twin Oaks: A Walden Two Experiment. Originally started as a Walden Two community, it has since rejected its Walden Two position, however it still uses its modified Planner-Manager system as well as a system of labor credits based on the book.
Los Horcones is described as being 'Walden Two' inspired by their website, but appears to have rejected the Planner-Manager system in favor of what it describes as 'Personocracy'. It is strongly Radical behaviorist
though, which it claims as the basis for the title of a Walden Two community.
. In Science and Human Behavior a chapter is titled "Designing a Culture" and expands on this position as well as in other documents. In Beyond Freedom and Dignity there are many indirect references to Walden Two when describing other cultural designs.
In a critique of Walden Two, Harvey L. Gamble, Jr. asserted that Skinner's "fundamental thesis is that individual traits are shaped from above, by social forces that create the environment", and that Skinner's goal "is to create a frictionless society where individuals are properly socialized to function with others as a unit", and to thus "make the community [Walden Two] into a perfectly efficient anthill". Gamble writes, "We find at the end of Walden Two that Frazier [a founding member of Walden Two]... has sole control over the political system and its policies. It is he who regulates food, work, education, and sleep, and who sets the moral and economic agenda." However, contrary to Gamble's critique, it should be noted that neither Frazier nor any other person has the sole power to amend the constitution of Walden Two. See the "Community governance" section, above.
Noam Chomsky
also compares Walden Two to a concentration camp and suggests that it would be a dystopia
Radical behaviorism
Radical behaviorism is a philosophy developed by B.F. Skinner that underlies the experimental analysis of behavior approach to psychology. The term radical behaviorism applies to a particular school that emerged during the reign of behaviorism...
psychologist B. F. Skinner
B. F. Skinner
Burrhus Frederic Skinner was an American behaviorist, author, inventor, baseball enthusiast, social philosopher and poet...
, first published in 1948. In its time, it could have been considered to be science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
, as the methods employed to alter people's behaviour did not yet exist.
The community
Walden Two describes a small, thousand-person planned community based upon the ideas of a 'community of philosophers' posited by H. D. Thoreau and Skinner's then as yet uncreated 'technology of behavior'(what might now be called the very real area of [Applied behavior analysis]. Frazier and five others are the governing Planners. The community is self-sufficient, emulating the self-sufficiency of the Walden utopia. However, one important difference is that experimental control is used to shape the community. As a pilot scientific experiment, the way things are done is changeable if the evidence favors change.The members
The community members are happy, productive, and creative; happiness derives from the promotion of rich social relationships and family life, free affection, the creation of art, music, and literature, opportunity for games of chess and tennis, and ample rest, food, and sleep. The community is self-governed; the members subscribe to the Walden Code of self-control techniques, which allow maintaining a happy, productive life in Walden Two with minimal strain. Self-governance, however, is supplemented with community counselors who supervise behaviour and are available to help the members with their problems in following the Walden Code.Community governance
Walden Two has a constitution that "can be changed by a unanimous vote of the Planners and a two-thirds vote of the Managers".The constitution provides for a "Board of Planners", which is Walden Two's "only government". "Board of Planners" is a name that "goes back to the days when Walden Two existed only on paper". "There are six Planners, usually three men and three women". "The Planners are charged with the success of the community. They make policies, review the work of the Managers, keep an eye on the state of the nation in general. They also have certain judicial functions." A Planner "may serve for ten years, but no longer." A vacancy on the Board of Planners is filled by the Board "from a pair of names supplied by the Managers".
Managers are "specialists in charge of the divisions and services of Walden Two". A member of the community can "work up to be a Manager--through intermediate positions which carry a good deal of responsibility and provide the necessary apprenticeship". The Managers are not elected by the members of Walden Two. The method of selecting Managers is not specified; however, since the Board of Planners is Walden Two's "only government", it is reasonable to suppose that Managers are appointed by the Board of Planners.
Walden Two has Planners, Managers, Workers, and Scientists. The Scientists conduct experiments "in plant and animal breeding, the control of infant behavior, educational processes of several sorts, and the use of some of our [Walden Two's] raw materials". The method of selecting Scientists is not specified but it is again reasonable to suppose that Scientists are appointed by the Board of Planners.
Thoreau's Walden
Walden Twos title is a reference to Henry David ThoreauHenry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau was an American author, poet, philosopher, abolitionist, naturalist, tax resister, development critic, surveyor, historian, and leading transcendentalist...
's book Walden
Walden
Walden is an American book written by noted Transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau...
. In the novel, the Walden Community is mentioned as having the benefits of living in a place like Thoreau's Walden, but "with company". It is, as the book says, 'Walden for two' - meaning a community and not a place of solitude. Originally, Skinner indicated that he wanted to title it The Sun is but a Morning Star, a clear reference to Thoreau's Walden, but the publishers suggested the current title as an alternative.
In theory and in practice, Thoreau's Walden experiment and the Walden Two experiment were far different from one another. For instance, Thoreau's Walden espouses the virtues of self-reliance at the individual level, while Walden Two espouses (1) the virtues of self-reliance at the community level, and (2) Skinner's underlying premise that free will of the individual is weak compared to how environmental conditions shape behavior .
News From Nowhere, 1984
Skinner published a follow up to Walden Two in an essay titled News From Nowhere, 1984. It details the discovery of Eric Blair in the community who seeks out and meets Burris, confessing his true identity as George OrwellGeorge Orwell
Eric Arthur Blair , better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English author and journalist...
. Blair seeks out Frazier as the 'leader' and the two have discussions which comprise the essay. Skinner, as Frazier, mentions that Walden Two has "no institutionalized system of government, religion, or economics" and relates this to the goal of 19th century anarchism
Anarchism
Anarchism is generally defined as the political philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, or alternatively as opposing authority in the conduct of human relations...
.
Real world efforts
Many efforts to create a Walden Two in real life are detailed in Hilke Kuhlmann's Living Walden Two and in Daniel W. Bjork's B.F.Skinner.Some of them include:
- 1955 In New Haven, Connecticut a group led by Arthur Gladstone tries to start a community.
- 1966 Waldenwoods conference is held in Hartland, Michigan, comprising 83 adults and 4 children, coordinated through the Breiland list (a list of interested people who wrote to Skinner and were referred to Jim Breiland).
- 1966 Matthew Israel forms the Association for Social Design (ASD), to promote a Walden Two, which soon finds chapters in Los Angeles, Albuquerque, and Washington, D.C..
- 1967 Israel's ASD forms the Morningside House in Arlington, Massachusetts.
- 1967 Twin Oaks Community (web site) is started in Lousia, Virginia.
- 1969 Keith Miller in Lawrence, Kansas founds a 'Walden house' student collective that becomes The Sunflower House 11.
- 1971 Roger Ulrich starts Lake Village in Michigan originally conceptualized as a 'scientific behaviorist experiment'.
- 1971 Los HorconesLos HorconesLos Horcones, Mexico, has described itself "as the only true Walden Two community in existence". The members of Los Horcones use techniques based on behavioral science to shape their own and each others behaviors. They use those behavior-shaping techniques in politically coordinated ways and they...
(web site), is started in HermosilloHermosilloHermosillo is a city and municipality located centrally in the northwestern Mexican state of Sonora. It is the capital and main economic center for the state and region. It contains almost all of the state's manufacturing and has thirty percent of its population...
, Mexico. - 1972 Sunflower House 11 is (re)born in Lawrence, Kansas from the previous experiment.
- 1973 East Wind in south central Missouri.
Twin Oaks is detailed in Kat Kinkade
Kat Kinkade
Kathleen "Kat" Kinkade was one of the eight co-founders of Twin Oaks, an intentional community in Virginia originally inspired by the behaviorist utopia depicted in B.F. Skinner's book Walden Two. Kinkade was the only one of the original founders to remain a community member for most of the...
's book, Twin Oaks: A Walden Two Experiment. Originally started as a Walden Two community, it has since rejected its Walden Two position, however it still uses its modified Planner-Manager system as well as a system of labor credits based on the book.
Los Horcones is described as being 'Walden Two' inspired by their website, but appears to have rejected the Planner-Manager system in favor of what it describes as 'Personocracy'. It is strongly Radical behaviorist
Radical behaviorism
Radical behaviorism is a philosophy developed by B.F. Skinner that underlies the experimental analysis of behavior approach to psychology. The term radical behaviorism applies to a particular school that emerged during the reign of behaviorism...
though, which it claims as the basis for the title of a Walden Two community.
Cultural engineering
Skinner wrote about cultural engineering in at least two books, devoting a chapter to it in both Science and Human Behavior and Beyond Freedom and DignityBeyond Freedom and Dignity
Beyond Freedom and Dignity is a book written by American psychologist B. F. Skinner and first published in 1971. The book argues that entrenched belief in free will and the moral autonomy of the individual hinders the prospect of using scientific methods to modify behavior for the purpose of...
. In Science and Human Behavior a chapter is titled "Designing a Culture" and expands on this position as well as in other documents. In Beyond Freedom and Dignity there are many indirect references to Walden Two when describing other cultural designs.
Criticisms
Hilke Kuhlmann's Living Walden Two possesses many subtle and not-so-subtle criticisms of the original Walden Two which are related to the actual efforts that arose from the novel. One criticism is that many of the founders of real-life Walden Twos identified with, or wanted to emulate, Frazier, the uncharismatic and implicitly despotic founder of the community.In a critique of Walden Two, Harvey L. Gamble, Jr. asserted that Skinner's "fundamental thesis is that individual traits are shaped from above, by social forces that create the environment", and that Skinner's goal "is to create a frictionless society where individuals are properly socialized to function with others as a unit", and to thus "make the community [Walden Two] into a perfectly efficient anthill". Gamble writes, "We find at the end of Walden Two that Frazier [a founding member of Walden Two]... has sole control over the political system and its policies. It is he who regulates food, work, education, and sleep, and who sets the moral and economic agenda." However, contrary to Gamble's critique, it should be noted that neither Frazier nor any other person has the sole power to amend the constitution of Walden Two. See the "Community governance" section, above.
Noam Chomsky
Noam Chomsky
Avram Noam Chomsky is an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, and activist. He is an Institute Professor and Professor in the Department of Linguistics & Philosophy at MIT, where he has worked for over 50 years. Chomsky has been described as the "father of modern linguistics" and...
also compares Walden Two to a concentration camp and suggests that it would be a dystopia
Dystopia
A dystopia is the idea of a society in a repressive and controlled state, often under the guise of being utopian, as characterized in books like Brave New World and Nineteen Eighty-Four...
Publication details
- ISBN 0-87220-779-X (HardcoverHardcoverA hardcover, hardback or hardbound is a book bound with rigid protective covers...
)(Worldcat link: http://www.worldcatlibraries.org/oclc/75310838&tab=holdings&ht=edition) - ISBN 0-87220-778-1 (PaperbackPaperbackPaperback, softback or softcover describe and refer to a book by the nature of its binding. The covers of such books are usually made of paper or paperboard, and are usually held together with glue rather than stitches or staples...
)(Worldcat link: http://www.worldcatlibraries.org/oclc/61399513&tab=holdings&ht=edition) - ISBN 0-02-411510-X (Mass market paperback)(Worldcat link: http://www.worldcatlibraries.org/oclc/33134847&tab=holdings&ht=edition).
Further reading
- Preview of Walden Two
- Review of Living Walden Two: B. F. Skinner's Behaviorist Utopia and Experimental Communities. Richard F. Rakos (2006). The Behavior Analyst, volume 29(1), pp. 153–157.
- Discriminating utopian from dystopian literature: Why is Walden Two considered a dystopia? Bobby Newman (1993). The Behavior Analyst, volume 16(2), pp. 167–175.
- A multicultural feminist analysis of Walden Two. Rita S. Wolpert (2005). The Behavior Analyst Today, volume 6(3), pp. 186–190.
- Western Cultural Influences in Behavior Analysis as Seen From a Walden Two. Comunidad Los Horcones (2002). Behavior and Social Issues, volume 11(2), pp. 204–212.
- Beyond the Box: B.F. Skinner's Technology of Behavior from Laboratory to Life, 1950s-1970s. Alexandra Rutherford (2009). Toronto, Ontario: University of Toronto PressUniversity of Toronto PressUniversity of Toronto Press is Canada's leading scholarly publisher and one of the largest university presses in North America. Founded in 1901, UTP has published over 6,500 books, with well over 3,500 of these still in print....
, 224 pages. ISBN 0802096182.- Audio interview of Alexandra Rutherford.
- From Rats and Pigeons to Cultural Practices: A Review of Beyond the Box: B. F. Skinner's Technology of Behavior from Laboratory to Life, 1950s to 1970s. Peter Lamal (2009). Behavior and Social Issues, volume 18, Advance Online Publication.