|
91950 |
SST / HR 346 Studies in Obedience: THE MAN AND THE EXPERIMENT THAT
SHOCKED THE WORLD – |
Stuart Levine |
M . . . . |
3:00 pm -6:00 pm |
ARENDT CNTR. |
SSCI |
Cross-listed:
Human Rights It has now been more than
fifty years since the original work of Stanley Milgram at Yale University
demonstrated the remarkable and widely unpredicted
finding that large numbers of individuals in multiple samples of American
men and women studied were willing to "punish" another person when
ordered to do so by an experimenter; this in the context of a psychology
experiment on learning and memory. The
prominence of the initial work and the continued salience of such study,
including the pronounced ethical considerations and the necessary
generalizability to societal and historical contexts cannot be
over-stated. As
recently as five years ago a replication of the original study with only slight
modifications was published (J. Burger, January 2009) and more recent studies
reveals that “obedience” is very much prevalent in our society and in many
others as well. Also the ethical
debate and ecological validity controversy have not lessened. But aside from
the volume of investigations the current domain of the "Milgram study” is
especially worthy of continuing interest; this because of historical events in
the intervening years since1960. The
seminar will convey that the continuing study of obedience phenomena is vital
for the betterment of institutions - even in a democratic society - and that
social scientists must find a way to safely and ethically investigate the
conditions that promote destructive obedience and learn the rudiments of how it
can be minimized. This is an upper college seminar. It is designed for moderated social studies
majors and even those from other divisions of the college, who will require
permission of the instructor to enroll. Criteria for membership are a
willingness to read with care and then with conviction share the results of
such reading and study.
***NOTE – While that
which I describe in this note is still in the planning stage I would inform all
who may enroll in the seminar of the scheduling of “Sunday Evening” visitors to
the group. Such events may occur six or
seven times over the course of the term and the contribution of these
individuals is associated to the presentations by student members of our group
on Monday afternoon of the week. The
visitors are “Milgram/Obedience to Authority” scholars and researchers who
reside or work in our geographical area.
The seminar on such occasions will meet at 6:00 pm in the French Door
Room of the Faculty Dining Room and will last about two hours. I will arrange for a pasta bowl from the
dining service. The visitor
will likely then attend our Monday seminar session to join me in the
discussion of student presentations.
This year I will invite past students of the Obedience Seminar that are
still enrolled at the college should they wish to attend one or more of these sessions. Class
size: 10