| Abstract: Operant theory is bottom-up, as opposed to top-down, in the sense that it is inductive and makes limited assumptions in the beginning. Skinner's view of theories is also well known. This paper explores the absolute beginnings of his theory, starting with his first published papers and some unpublished material too, ending with the most complicated version with verbal behavior, the book published 1957, but the research turns out to have started much earlier, in fact as early as the earliest work. Given what was just said about bottom-up theories, how can that be? |