But first build a strong base for your current and future thoughts. Review well and carefully. B. F. Skinner and Jean Paul Sartre take stridently opposite positions on individual responsibility. Skinner argues that the decisions we make, and the values upon which we base those decisions, are products of our long-term interaction with our environment. This interaction includes physical experiences of pleasure and pain.
Ice cream tastes good.
Whoever has a taste of ice cream will tend to seek to taste it again. This interaction also includes the effect of other people on us. Parents give ice cream for what the parents call good behavior. In general, the best way to understand the behavior of any adult is as the product of a life-time of conditioning, not as the result of free and responsible individual decisions. So says Skinner.