Walden Two

By: B. F. Skinner

Narrated by: Robert McCollum

From author and psychologist B. F. Skinner, regarded by many as the most important and influential psychologist since Freud, comes Walden Two. This fictional outline of a modern utopia has been a center of controversy ever since its publication in 1948. Set in the United States, it depicts a society in which human problems are solved by a scientific technology of human conduct. The novel describes an experimental community called "Walden Two", whose members are happy, productive, and creative; their happiness derives from non-nuclear family life; amazingly limited work hours; communal child-raising; free affection; the creation of art, music, and literature; opportunity for games of chess and tennis; and ample rest, food, and sleep. It's a utopia inspired by the experience described in Henry David Thoreau's Walden, but with company. Fans of philosophical writers like Ayn Rand or Karl Marx and imagined utopia's like Aldous Huxley's Island will enjoy broadening their minds with the challenging ideas described by Skinner in this classic novel.

©1948 B.F. Skinner (P)2016 Audiobooks.com Publishing

As relevant today as when it was first published

I’m a fan of dystopian literature and a Psychologist, and Skinner was once my department’s head. Always wanted to read this, but never got around to it. Skinner presents here a well articulated/reasoned argument for communal living based on applied behavioral science. This book stands the test of time, despite some of its “quaint” historical references.

Outstanding

It's a long book, but it gives a great example of a world designed through operant conditioning.

A must

A must for all Behavior Analysts! This is a quintessential story for all of us who want to understand just how Skinner saw the world.

interesting from an historical perspective

I struggled to finish this one. I'm in graduate school for Applied Behavior Analysis (the field pioneered by B.F. Skinner) and I thought this would be a worthwhile listen. While it was interesting at parts, It was overall fairly dry and not a captivating read. I found the whole thing tedious.

A different kind of book......

I read Walden Two roughly half a century ago as a young man, and I was pretty impressed back then. I now listened to the audiobook to see if the book has stood the test of time. I must say that, in retrospect, Skinner's views on the control of human behavior seem quite simplistic and some of them downright naive (but keep in mind the book was published in 1948!). We know today that human nature is certainly much more complex than he believed. Still a worthwhile read/listen, if you want to learn about Skinner's worldview and practice some critical thinking skills. Initially, I found the voice that the narrator used for the book's protagonist (Frazier) somewhat annoying, but I got used to it and at the end it seemed appropriate given Frazier's character. By the way, there have been, and apparently still are, real-life communities that are at least in part based on Skinner's ideas (see Wikipedia entry for Walden Two).