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Utopia Viewpoint in B.F. Skinner's Book, Walden Two

Decent Essays

In 1948, B.F. Skinner published his novel, Walden Two, based on an utopian viewpoint that once arose from a dinner conversation with a friend. Skinner shared his thoughts with his companion about soldiers returning from war. Skinner was curious as to how soldiers could abandon adventure only to tie themselves down to pursue the “American Dream” when they could be exploring the world caught up in their own personal experiences (Altus & Morris, 2004). However, Skinner’s utopian viewpoint was not a newly-found idea, but a correlation of ideas from early childhood reading. Skinner wanted to use his own dissatisfactions in life as a piece of his motivation. Discussing openly with people how he felt when he watched his own wife print “housewife” in current occupation spots, made him come to the realization that people were struggling to save themselves from domesticity. After finishing a paper due soon, Skinner began to implement his current thoughts into the book, Walden Two (Altus & Morris, 2004). The book, Walden Two, sold a little over 700 copies a year. In later years, ideas from the book were evident in new societal problems. Sales then soared to over 250,000 copies a year. Skinner used this book throughout his career as a heavy context reference to his ideologies about utopian and humanistic themes. Practices today show evidence of this book's context popping up throughout society in our ever evolving modern world. These practices are commonly organized into three groups:

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