Re: Milgram & Authority

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