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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.
-B. F. Skinner
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To Say That A Man Is Sinful

B. F. Skinner
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.
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Men Giving Definitions

More From B. F. Skinner

There are four types of men in this world: 1. the man who knows, and knows that he knows; he is wise, so consult him. 2. the man who knows, but doesn't know that he knows; help him not forget what he knows. 3. the man who knows not, and knows that he knows not; teach him. 4. finally, there is the man who knows not but pretends that he knows; he is a fool, so avoid him.
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Men are four; he who knows and knows not that he knows. he is asleep; wake him. he who knows not and knows not that he knows not. he is a fool; shun him. he who knows not and knows that he knows not. he is a child; teach him. he who knows and knows that he knows. he is a king; follow him. the heights by great men reached and kept were not attained by sudden flight, but they, while their companions slept, were toiling upward in the night.
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The true value of man is not determined by his possession, supposed or real, of truth, but rather by his sincere exertion to get to the truth. it is not possession of truth by which he extends his powers and in which his ever-growing perfectability is to be found. possession makes one passive, indolent and proud. if god were to hold all truth concealed in his right hand, and in his left only the steady and diligent drive for truth, albeit with the proviso that i would always and forever err in the process, and to offer me the choice, i would with all humility take the left hand.
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Where these reduced (operational - e.w.) concepts govern the analysis of the human reality, individual or social, mental or material, they arrive at a false concreteness - a concreteness isolated from the conditions which constitute its reality. in this context, the operational treatment of the concept assumes a political function. the individual and his behavior are analyzed in a therapeutic sense - adjustment to his society. thought and expression, theory and practice are to be brought in line with the facts of his existence without leaving room for the conceptual critique of these facts.
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To free a man from suffering, he must be set right, put in health; and the health at the root of man's being, his rightness, is to be free from wrongness, that is, from sin. a man is right when there is no wrong in him. i do not mean set free from the sins he has done: that will follow; i mean the sins he is doing, or is capable of doing; the sins in his being which spoil his nature — the wrongness in him — the evil he consents to; the sin he is, which makes him do the sin he does.
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A bath in ganges undoubtedly absolves one of all sins; but what does that avail? they say that the sins perch on trees along the banks of the ganges. no sooner does the man come back from the holy waters that the old sins jump on his shoulders from the trees. the same old sins take possession of him again. he is hardly out of the waters before they fall upon him.
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