Bruce A. Thyer (2007). On the possible influence of Bertrand Russell on B. F. Skinner’s approach to education. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 40, 587.

Periodically throughout his professional writing, B. F. Skinner acknowledged his intellectual debt to various earlier writers.

Francis Bacon, Ernst Mach, and Claude Bernard were all mentioned in this regard.

Bertrand Russell appeared to exert a singularly important influence, as noted by Skinner: “I was drawn to psychology and particularly to behaviorism by some papers which Bertrand Russell published” (Skinner, 1978, p. 113). . . .