If The World Is To Save Any

Punitive Measures Whether Administered By Police, Teachers, Spouses Or Parents Have Well Known Standard Effects: (1) Escape-education Has Its Own Name For That: Truancy, (2) Counterattack-vandalism On Schools And Attacks On Teachers, (3) Apathy-a Sullen Do-nothing Withdrawal. The More Violent The Punishment, The More Serious The By-products.

In The Traditional View, A Person Is Free. He Is Autonomous In The Sense That His Behavior Is Uncaused. He Can Therefore Be Held Responsible For What He Does And Justly Punished If He Offends. That View, Together With Its Associated Practices, Must Be Re-examined When A Scientific Analysis Reveals Unsuspected Controlling Relations Between Behavior And Environment.

To Say That A Man Is Sinful Because He Sins Is To Give An Operational Definition Of Sin. To Say That He Sins Because He Is Sinful Is To Trace His Behavior To A Supposed Inner Trait. But Whether Or Not A Person Engages In The Kind Of Behavior Called Sinful Depends Upon Circumstances Which Are Not Mentioned In Either Question. The Sin Assigned As An Inner Possession (the Sin A Person "knows") Is To Be Found In A History Of Reinforcement.

A Culture Must Be Reasonably Stable, But It Must Also Change, And It Will Presumably Be Strongest If It Can Avoid Excessive Respect For Tradition And Fear Of Novelty On The One Hand And Excessively Rapid Change On The Other.

Society Attacks Early, When The Individual Is Helpless.