Beyond Freedom And Dignity: Difference between revisions

Except when physically constrained, a person is least free or dignified when under the threat of punishment. We should expect that the literatures of freedom and dignity would oppose punitive techniques, but in fact they have acted to preserve them. A person who has been punished is not thereby simply less inclined to behave in a given way; at best, he learns how to avoid punishment. ... Under punitive contingencies a person appears to be free to behave well and to deserve credit when does so. Nonpunitive contingencies generate the same behavior, but a person cannot then be said to be free, and the contigencies deserve the credit when he behaves well. Little or nothing remains for the autonomous man to do and receive credit for doing. ... But our task is not to encourage moral struggle or to build or demonstrate inner virtues. It is to make life less punishing and in doing so to release for more reinforcing activities the time and energy consumed in the avoidance of punishments. [The literatures of freedom and dignity] cannot now accept the fact that all control is exerted by the environment and proceed to the design of better environments rather than of better men.