Re: Milgram & Authority

[Mike Godwin <mnemonic@eff.org>]

Hal writes:

> I saw a documentary about this research about ten years ago, and they made
> a point which hasn't come up here: that Milgram, in subjecting his exper-
> imental subjects to such psychological stress (many were traumatized for
> months afterwards about what they had done) was being just as unethical, just
> as unfeeling and unthinking, as his experiment was designed to show his sub-
> jects as being.  Why was Milgram willing to push his subjects to such lengths?
> Was his obedience to the "authority" of abstract scientific research any more
> defensible than his subjects' obedience to that authority?

I have my doubts about the ethics of Milgram's research. But it's
difficult not to be grateful to him for his having done it.


--Mike