Synthesis Essay
Human nature eludes us again and again, as we attempt to develop our knowledge into different forms, forms which we hope we will find insight into humanity with. Lord of the Flies is a novel by William Golding in which a party of abandoned boys must fend for themselves on a strange island. However, with their society in constant turmoil, and as leadership and characters shift, the situation of the boys slowly declines as they turn to savagery. At about the same time that Golding wrote his novel, psychologist B.F Skinner developed his theory on human nature. Skinner believed that the actions and very mental makeup of humans was derived directly from their surroundings, their environment. He thought that shaping this environment …show more content…
Skinner states in his solution for humanity that a society should be created that can use his reinforcement methods to control humanity and steer it in the right directions. Just as this society would fix the world’s problems, on a smaller scale its concept can be used to fix the problems on the island. Now. Skinner briefly discussed a few possibilities for his theoretical society. He already believes that science is the only just way to rule, and he proposes that “science could lead to the design of a government that will promote the wellbeing of the governed,” in his book (Stevenson, 204). Somehow, a sort of ruling body or entity will control the reinforcement and practices used, and design the rules which are to be followed. In Lord of the Flies, the boys who clearly have the best intentions for their compatriots are Ralph and Piggy. Using their blueprints of moral design, they would lay out the civil and social laws they thought would most benefit the others. Then, they would structure practices that follow Skinner 's operant conditioning formula. They would need reinforcement, reward, and stimulus. All of this would be no doubt quite taxing, and require constant maintenance in addition to the fact that several hundred ours at the least would be required to drill into the boys their . But overall, changing the environment to a more positive structure would yield the best
Human nature eludes us again and again, as we attempt to develop our knowledge into different forms, forms which we hope we will find insight into humanity with. Lord of the Flies is a novel by William Golding in which a party of abandoned boys must fend for themselves on a strange island. However, with their society in constant turmoil, and as leadership and characters shift, the situation of the boys slowly declines as they turn to savagery. At about the same time that Golding wrote his novel, psychologist B.F Skinner developed his theory on human nature. Skinner believed that the actions and very mental makeup of humans was derived directly from their surroundings, their environment. He thought that shaping this environment …show more content…
Skinner states in his solution for humanity that a society should be created that can use his reinforcement methods to control humanity and steer it in the right directions. Just as this society would fix the world’s problems, on a smaller scale its concept can be used to fix the problems on the island. Now. Skinner briefly discussed a few possibilities for his theoretical society. He already believes that science is the only just way to rule, and he proposes that “science could lead to the design of a government that will promote the wellbeing of the governed,” in his book (Stevenson, 204). Somehow, a sort of ruling body or entity will control the reinforcement and practices used, and design the rules which are to be followed. In Lord of the Flies, the boys who clearly have the best intentions for their compatriots are Ralph and Piggy. Using their blueprints of moral design, they would lay out the civil and social laws they thought would most benefit the others. Then, they would structure practices that follow Skinner 's operant conditioning formula. They would need reinforcement, reward, and stimulus. All of this would be no doubt quite taxing, and require constant maintenance in addition to the fact that several hundred ours at the least would be required to drill into the boys their . But overall, changing the environment to a more positive structure would yield the best