When Is It Wrong to Obey Authority? In the recent discussions on authority, a major dispute has been whether it is wrong to obey authority. On one side of the argument, some claim that obeying authority is wrong. From this perspective, many people see Milgram’s shock experiment and Zimbardo’s prison experiment as examples of how dangerous obeying authority is. As Milgram states the subjects in the experiment were “proud of doing a good job, obeying the experimenter under difficult circumstances” (509). Basically, Milgram realized that the subjects got satisfaction from doing what the experimenter told them and obeying authority, even if it was immoral. From the other standpoint, some argue that disobeying authority is always wrong. From this
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Then would Socrates make a good Nazi? Nazi’s went to the extreme to obey Hitler just as Socrates did for his authority, and Milgram’s subjects did for the experimenter. Nazi’s killed millions of innocent Jews in concentration camps following one man’s authority and his party. Any true Nazi would take a bullet for Hitler. You did not have to be evil to be swept under Hitler’s authority. And Germans who resisted the Nazi party did not have a choice. They would be killed if they resisted and they had no way of going against the Nazi party. Milgram explains that “relatively few people have the resources needed to resist authority” (508). When a power as great as Hitler for example takes control, there is no way to revolt or even escape it. But Socrates had the power to …show more content…
He was not seen as authority, he was under the authority of the expert and could not change his beliefs to escape. As he says “I cannot abandon the principles which I used to hold in the past simply because this accident has happened to me...I respect and regard the same principles now as before “(Plato 578). Socrates is saying that even though this accident occurred, there is still no reason to change authority figure and he will still follow the same expert. Socrates chooses to remain a prisoner in Zimbardo’s point of view and did not escape when he had the chance. He obeyed by being passive and didn’t want to accept his responsibilities
Then would Socrates make a good Nazi? Nazi’s went to the extreme to obey Hitler just as Socrates did for his authority, and Milgram’s subjects did for the experimenter. Nazi’s killed millions of innocent Jews in concentration camps following one man’s authority and his party. Any true Nazi would take a bullet for Hitler. You did not have to be evil to be swept under Hitler’s authority. And Germans who resisted the Nazi party did not have a choice. They would be killed if they resisted and they had no way of going against the Nazi party. Milgram explains that “relatively few people have the resources needed to resist authority” (508). When a power as great as Hitler for example takes control, there is no way to revolt or even escape it. But Socrates had the power to …show more content…
He was not seen as authority, he was under the authority of the expert and could not change his beliefs to escape. As he says “I cannot abandon the principles which I used to hold in the past simply because this accident has happened to me...I respect and regard the same principles now as before “(Plato 578). Socrates is saying that even though this accident occurred, there is still no reason to change authority figure and he will still follow the same expert. Socrates chooses to remain a prisoner in Zimbardo’s point of view and did not escape when he had the chance. He obeyed by being passive and didn’t want to accept his responsibilities