Free Essay Example on Obedience in American Society

Introduction

In his book, “The Dilemma of Obedience,” Milgram discusses the topic of obedience and power. He presents his idea by defining submission by asserting that the Nazi extermination is an ideal presentation of obedience that goes against the moral virtues of society. Milgram (n.p) holds that submission has a way of binding individuals to the authoritative organs by making them adhere to their evil political objectives.

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Experiment

In his book, “The Dilemma of Obedience,” Milgram sets up an experiment to explore the aspect of obedience, where subjects in his test were faced with ethical dilemma actions. Milgram refers to obedience as, “the basic structure of social life.” (Milgram n.p). This implies that society is expected to submit to authority without resisting. However, Milgram argues that it is treacherous for an individual to oblige to directives that are detrimental to others. He provides an example of people who administer dangerous electric shocks to persons and lethal doses after receiving orders from the authority.

The author is Stanley Milgram who was born in 1933, a prominent psychologist and a Ph.D. holder from Harvard University. He was an instructor at Yale, where he came up with his renowned Milgram experiment. His audience is not only the students pursuing psychology but also to the general public since he articulates the human nature. This source aims to illustrate that obedience is a crucial act in our social life since authority exists in every democratic society, although people should be cautious not to hurt others.

Conclusion

The strengths of the book are derived from the Milgram experiment which demonstrates the power of social encounters that controls human behavior especially when an individual’s conscience and morality are challenged. Consequently, the weakness of the source is the failure to convey the predicaments of the participants used in the experiment, who continued to submit to the authority. Milgram’s work relates completely to the topic of obedience to authority since it is the foundation of American society. In that, without obedience, American society would be in so much anarchy and chaos.

References

Milgram, Stanley. Obedience to Authority: an Experimental View. Harper Perennial Modern Thought, 2019.