How Cruel Are We
In Stanley Milgram's article, "The Perils of Obedience," the Yale Psychologist suggests that authority and obedience are essential in the "structure of social life" which leads into a discussion about authority, obedience, and the natural aggression of a person. Conservatives argued that disobedience to authority created social disorder, while humanists stressed importance of personal conscience. Submission to an authority creates a problem when orders are in conflict with the conscience of a person. In Milgram's experiment, the dilemma is between the desire to impress a superior and the guilt caused by inflicting pain on an innocent person. Milgram conducted an experiment to see how much pain an ordinary person would inflict on an innocent stranger while under the guidance of an Experimental Psychologist. The experiment called for two people to come into the laboratory under the outlook of doing tests concerned with memory and learning. People were selected from a wide cross section of the general p
I disagree with the fact that even though someone would be hurting another person, they would still continue to shock them. This paragraph will discuss the way I feel about certain things that came from "The Perils of Obedience. To me, it does not matter who asks me to do what, I would never do something to purposely inflict pain upon someone else. " The part of the Teacher was the real subject of the experiment, while an actor who had been previously instructed by the experimenter played the part of the Learner. The teacher has no way of knowing how painful these jolts can actually be. The dilemma of whether or not to obey became apparent in the Teacher once the Learner started feeling intense pain. The buttons that activated the shocks were labeled on the device and ranged from mild to extremely dangerous (Milgram 316-328). He suggested that the crimes were committed by ordinary people who deferred responsibility for their murderous actions to a higher authority within a misleading structure of command. I disagree with the teacher's decision to promptly continue inflicting pain upon the Learner. The test was modified to question the natural aggression in the average person by letting the subject choose how intense a shock to give the Learner. The tests showed that a high percentage of people were willing to shock a complete stranger when asked by a person of authority. One strong point was that his test showed that ordinary people, in being inferior to an authority they defer to, are willing to perform dreadful acts, even though they may find those acts extremely dangerous. " Milgram asked various people what they thought the results would be in such a test and most people did not believe that a normal person could be induced into severely shocking a stranger without being provoked.
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Acceptance Essays
