This blog is an informal online location to post class news, relevant information, and helpful links for students in my ACE Writing class. Please note that this is not a thorough online representation of the class; instead, this site is simply an opportunity to enhance it a bit.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Post your assignment here...
1. In one sentence, state your critique of the article.
2. Write a draft of your first paragraph.
1. This paper will critique the theory derived from the experiment that people are inherently aggressive and that this experiment provides an outlet to act out those aggressive tendencies.
OR
Other topics covered will be desire felt by people to satisfy authority figures, and the false theory that a physical presence of an authority figure will cause an individual to follow orders. ****(I'm still trying to decide whether these two sentences should be together, condensed, or if one should be cut off)****
2. History recounts many horrendous instances where human lives have been sacrificed on behalf of someone's command. Such events include Kristallnach, the Holocaust, and the torturing of prisoners in Guantanamo Bay. Stanley Milgram's experiments exemplifies behavior exhibited by the facilitators of these past events by simply having an authority figure command a subject to continue. This paper will critique the theory derived from the experiment that people are inherently aggressive and that this experiment provides an outlet to act out those aggressive tendencies. Other topics covered will be desire felt by people to satisfy authority figures, and the false theory that a physical presence of an authority figure will cause an individual to follow orders.
(1) Erich Fromm, in his essay “Disobedience as a Psychological and Moral Problem”, makes an interesting and unique point about obedience to authority and its pitfalls, and through his persuasive rhetoric, posits an interesting notion—that man’s disposition towards blind obedience is a flaw that transcends mankind, carrying devastating repercussions.
(2) Throughout history man has shaped its collective destiny by acts of obedience (and disobedience). While several creation myths support the idea that our history began with an act of disobedience to a largely benevolent authority, it can be argued that it is likely to be ended in act of obedience to a malevolent authority. The ways in which we define authority, and especially in the manner we assign power to it, is a phenomenon that has, as history have proven time and time again, often been twisted into something truly evil. Erich Fromm, in his essay “Disobedience as a Psychological and Moral Problem”, makes an interesting and unique point about obedience to authority and its pitfalls, and through his persuasive rhetoric, posits an interesting notion—that man’s disposition towards blind obedience is a flaw that transcends mankind, carrying devastating repercussions. He suggests that while acts of affirmation by a person’s own volition are necessary for a society to function, blind obedience to authority, or submission, is a stepping stone to our species’ end.
“Disobedience as a Psychological and Moral Problem” by Erich Fromm
1. Erich Fromm ideas of disobedience are correct, but he does not use effective examples to illustrate his idea that disobedience is what created the society that we are in today. 2. Is disobedience a good or bad thing in our society and the way it is shaped? The act of disobeying someone is what makes us free to innovation and free to do what one wants. Without it, people would always obey what they are told to do at their own free will, even though he/she does not want to do the act. Sometimes disobeying people too much can make someone a rebel and obeying all the time can make someone a slave. From the article “Disobedience as a Psychological and Moral Problem,” by Erich Fromm, illustrates the idea that human “history” began with the act of disobedience, and will end in the act of obedience. Fromm’s ideas in this article are correct, but are expressed with ideas that would less affect the persuasion of a reader. This is because he uses examples from myths and Gods.
1. Being in a group affects the way people think or what they believe.
2. In Doris Lessing’s article “Group Minds,” she purposes the idea that people tend to live their lives in groups. Being in a group affects the way people think or what they believe. Individuals get into groups of which they have similar interests, whether it be within the family, work groups, social, religious or political groups. Lessing argues that the hardest thing in the world is to maintain an individual dissident opinion when being a member in a group. With an experiment by a researcher, Lessing proves that the minority will usually give in to what the majority believes is right.
1. I find the article “Opinions and Social Pressure” convincing because I have witness some situations like this and experienced it myself but I would like to see more dialogues in the story to get a better image of what is going on.
2. People face social pressure one way or another. Some might be when people or friends are telling someone to do something that they do not want to do. Others like in the article “Opinions and Social Pressure” by Solomon E. Asch, student are pressured by their classmates without having a word said to the student. If the majority of people around the person do not share the same belief then the minority tend to go with the majority.
1. Lessing’s informal approach of her rather serious criticism of Western society results in forming a clear, coherent, and consenting essay.
2. First Paragraph: The majority of people take offense against a criticism they know is true. When an accusation is made against all of Western society, in order to convey his or her own thoughts, the accuser’s approach must be appropriate to avoid conflict. Doris Lessing, in her essay “Group Minds,” claims that most Westerners maintain an idea of themselves far from actuality. Most Westerners try to uphold the basic idea of democracy in their lives, that is the right to fight for and purse their own ambitions and beliefs. Westerners fail to realize that their lives are a complete different representation of that belief. Lessing verifies this by demonstrating that most people tend to have more faith in groups than in themselves. “The family, work groups, social, religious and political groups” are examples that Lessing uses to illustrate her idea. As straightforward as she is in her communicating her idea, Lessing’s delivery of her idea is very informal and works for this essay. Even though it is a criticism of people, the essay’s informality and style allows the audience to view her idea and accept it with rather ease than take offense and ignore the message completely. Lessing’s informal approach of her rather serious criticism of Western society results in forming a clear, coherent, and consenting essay.
1. "Authority and Excuses" by Alan Strudler and Danielle Warren not only provides straight-forward facts about authority's mental power over people, but it has philosophical and in depth analysis on their views; The authors' form is organized into six equal paragraphs each describing a component of the power of authority on individuals, but the form unfortunately does not provide personal anecdotes that could have enhanced the essay.
2. It has been questioned that whether or not people follow the orders of Authority even if it is immoral to them. Who is to blame in the end? Is it the the ordinary person who did the actual wrongdoing or is it the authority figure who told this ordinary person to do what he or she was told to do? In "Authority and Excuses" by Alan Strudler and Danielle Warren it describes how people use shortcuts called "heuristics" that confuse them on what's ethically correct. He then describes the whole concept of "blame" and that should we really blame someone for a wrongful action, if in the end most of humanity would have done the same. The authors Strudley and Warren however do not use dialogue, charts, personal stories to help enhance the essay, but does provide a philosophical and in depth analysis on examples of certain scientists thoughts and actions, mainly the infamous experiment of Stanley Milgram. Furthermore, other articles similar to "Authority and Excuses" do not provide an analysis on the concept of blame.
One Sentence: Although the overall form of Fromm’s article allows the reader to have a personal connection and keeps the reader intrigued, the overall content of the article is less convincing; Fromm’s use of religious and mythical “evidence” simply weakens his overall government of disobedience, establishing a weak foundation for his argument.
First Paragraph: Erich Fromm’s “Disobedience as a Psychological and Moral Problem,” offers the eye-opening assumption that as disobedience led to the creation of the civilization, obedience will lead us back to our own self-destruction. Whether Eve’s eating of forbidden apple or Prometheus’ stealing the fire from the Gods, Fromm depicts that this act of disobedience gave way to a human society of independence and free will. Through his analysis, Fromm gives way to the reality that the majority of the human race has been programmed to obey the rules of a few. He goes on to describe the necessity for one’s disobedience for the sake of the human race. Although the overall form of Fromm’s article allows the reader to have a personal connection and keeps the reader intrigued, the overall content of the article is less convincing; Fromm’s use of religious and mythical “evidence” simply weakens his overall government of disobedience, establishing a weak foundation for his argument.
1. In order to prosper as a society and as a people disobedience is necessary. 2. In Disobedience as a Psychological and Moral Problem the author, Erich Fromm, introduces his idea that disobedience is necessary in order to prosper as a society. He gives validity to his beliefs by using different anecdotes to illustrate his perspective. He uses a biblical context when he refers to Adam and Eve and tells how they “cut the umbilical cord” and “emerged from a pre-human harmony.” In addition to this reference he also makes more references to Greek Mythology as well when talks about Prometheus and him stealing the fire from the Gods.
(1)Opinions and Social Pressure makes a strong argument that social pressure can and does constrain people’s opinions to a certain extent.
(2)In the article Opinions and Social Pressure, Solomon Asch argues that people sometimes feel the strong effect of social pressure that it forces them alienate their own opinion. Asch explains the results of his experiments and how the subjects would give in to the pressure of the group even thought the rest of the group was instructed to answer incorrectly. Asch also gives circumstances where the subjects would not give in to the social pressure of the group. Asch also argues that people give in to manipulation from propaganda without knowing the whole story.
1)“The Perils of Obedience” was an essay written effectively because the results of the experiment were not expected but overall proven by Milgram, the explanations given by the subjects on why they continued the experiment where interesting, and the written format on how the information was presented conveyed the importance to the reader.
2)The Nuremberg Trials where tribunals that put on trial military men and women that committed atrocities in Nazi concentration camps during World War II. The people that committed these crimes defended themselves by pleading not guilty due to the fact that they were just following orders from their superiors. In “The Perils of Obedience” by Stanley Milgram, Milgram is inspired by this events to conduct an experiment that will show how much pain an ordinary person is willing to administrate another human being because he or she is ordered to by a higher authority. The experiment consist of three people the scientist, learner (actor) and the subject on who the experiment is being conducted on. The subject is told that this experiment is to observe the effects on punishment on learning and after taken to a machine that administrates shocks from 15 to 450 volts. The experimenter tells the subject to administrate a shock to the learner if he does not have the capacity to remember the second word of a pair when he hears the first one again. The essay goes on to show us the results and reactions of the subject during and after the experiment. “The Perils of Obedience” was an essay written effectively because the results of the experiment were not expected but overall proven by Milgram, the explanations given by the subjects on why they continued the experiment where interesting, and the written format on how the information was presented conveyed the importance to the reader.
1. The content of this review of Milgram's experiment is informative and unbiased, however, the quotes are overwhelming to the form of the essay and take away attention from the content facts.
2."'They obey as long as the command comes from legitimate authority'" is one of the points Moti Nissani highlights in "Review of Stanley Milgram's Experiment on Obedience". He discussed how people blindly obey their authority's orders without feeling responsible for the harm they cause others. This review gives credit to different point of views so it provides a wide range of information without being biased. Although the repetitive quotes throughout the essay provide information, it does not provide a better form to essay. Nissami examines the validity of the experiment and the people's reaction tendencies to authority.
(1) “How, and to what extent, do social forces constrain people’s opinions and attitudes?” was a question developed by no other than Solomon E. Asch from the Institute of Advanced Study, by testing his hypothesis he was able to prove the extent of people’s constrains before they gave into social pressure.
(2)The experiment conducted by Solomon E. Asch was a great success. There has been no other scientists that have accomplished what he has. Solomon tested a group of college students to see how social pressure influenced their decisions and attitudes. Who would have thought that other people’s decisions play a great part on people’s lives. This is something that goes on under people’s noses without being noticed. The article “Opinions and Social Pressure”, by Solomon Asch included the idea that people are more confident with the decisions they make when they have someone else’s support for example a partner. This was proven to be true by who else but Solomon.
Thesis Statement: Milgram’s critical content presented in his article and methods are very good and the form it is written helps the essay be more clear and reliable for resource.
In The Perils of Obedience by Stanley Milgram, Milgram states his position toward the obedience as human beings have towards higher authorities. He makes this statement by the experiment which he was able to do at Yale University in 1974. Bringing in different people and testing to see to what extent would they listen and hurt others only because it was said by a higher authority, was his experiment. His sources and report of the experiment are liable and valuable because they show how it is human instinct to listen and obey to other who seem to have a higher positions demand. However, there could be more experiments done to today’s decade to see if the experiment would still work and analyze from there. Also, his form of writing his article, the way it is spread out in the paper, and the methods used to gather the information together, makes it seem more scientific, therefore, making readers believe it more. Janette
critique: [On the article "Authority and Excuses" by Alan Strudler and Danielle Warren.]
Contentwise, his use of examples and strong, concluding thoughts are effective in convincing readers about the arguments the author is trying to make, while the format he uses is also successful in helping the readers understand the main points the author tries to prove.
Paragraph:
People follow orders when given to them from authority figures. What happens when following these orders means hurting another human being and putting them though unimaginable amounts of pain? Authors Alan Strudler and Danielle Warren discuss this issue in their article, "Authority and Excuses." In this piece, the authors make a note that people will follow the orders of authority to certain extremes, for a variety of reasons and, as their title suggests, excuses. These excuses vary from things such as respect, a sense of responsibility, reliability imposed on them, a belief that the expert knows best, following everyone else’s subordination to authority, and intimidation. They explain the logic behind these excuses that people seem to lean on. Using the Milgram experiments as their primary source for proof of such claims to be true, the authors examine and analyze how Milgram’s subjects are not an exception.
I really enjoyed reading Authority and Excuses by Alan Strudler and Danielle Warren, it not only was interesting but it also made me think and put myself into different situations and identify how I, too was using heuristics wrong.
According to Webster’s dictionary, heuristic is defined as an adjective for experience-based techniques that help in problem solving, learning and discovery. In the article Authority and Excuses, Alan Strudler and Danielle Warren critiques Stanley Milgrams experiment. The experiment attempts to explain why people obey authority figures whether he or she knows it is wrong or right, the people that were used in the experiment were well to do ordinary people and were put in unlikely situations to see how they would respond to wrongdoings. In the end the people that were used tried to put the blame on everyone else besides themselves. So if an individual with some authority demanded an ordinary individual to commit an immoral crime and he or she did it, who should then carry the blame?
Tahir Aimaq
ReplyDelete1. This paper will critique the theory derived from the experiment that people are inherently aggressive and that this experiment provides an outlet to act out those aggressive tendencies.
OR
Other topics covered will be desire felt by people to satisfy authority figures, and the false theory that a physical presence of an authority figure will cause an individual to follow orders. ****(I'm still trying to decide whether these two sentences should be together, condensed, or if one should be cut off)****
2. History recounts many horrendous instances where human lives have been sacrificed on behalf of someone's command. Such events include Kristallnach, the Holocaust, and the torturing of prisoners in Guantanamo Bay. Stanley Milgram's experiments exemplifies behavior exhibited by the facilitators of these past events by simply having an authority figure command a subject to continue. This paper will critique the theory derived from the experiment that people are inherently aggressive and that this experiment provides an outlet to act out those aggressive tendencies. Other topics covered will be desire felt by people to satisfy authority figures, and the false theory that a physical presence of an authority figure will cause an individual to follow orders.
Spencer Watson
ReplyDelete(1) Erich Fromm, in his essay “Disobedience as a Psychological and Moral Problem”, makes an interesting and unique point about obedience to authority and its pitfalls, and through his persuasive rhetoric, posits an interesting notion—that man’s disposition towards blind obedience is a flaw that transcends mankind, carrying devastating repercussions.
(2) Throughout history man has shaped its collective destiny by acts of obedience (and disobedience). While several creation myths support the idea that our history began with an act of disobedience to a largely benevolent authority, it can be argued that it is likely to be ended in act of obedience to a malevolent authority. The ways in which we define authority, and especially in the manner we assign power to it, is a phenomenon that has, as history have proven time and time again, often been twisted into something truly evil. Erich Fromm, in his essay “Disobedience as a Psychological and Moral Problem”, makes an interesting and unique point about obedience to authority and its pitfalls, and through his persuasive rhetoric, posits an interesting notion—that man’s disposition towards blind obedience is a flaw that transcends mankind, carrying devastating repercussions. He suggests that while acts of affirmation by a person’s own volition are necessary for a society to function, blind obedience to authority, or submission, is a stepping stone to our species’ end.
Gary Aragon
ReplyDelete“Disobedience as a Psychological and Moral Problem” by Erich Fromm
1. Erich Fromm ideas of disobedience are correct, but he does not use effective examples to illustrate his idea that disobedience is what created the society that we are in today.
2. Is disobedience a good or bad thing in our society and the way it is shaped? The act of disobeying someone is what makes us free to innovation and free to do what one wants. Without it, people would always obey what they are told to do at their own free will, even though he/she does not want to do the act. Sometimes disobeying people too much can make someone a rebel and obeying all the time can make someone a slave. From the article “Disobedience as a Psychological and Moral Problem,” by Erich Fromm, illustrates the idea that human “history” began with the act of disobedience, and will end in the act of obedience. Fromm’s ideas in this article are correct, but are expressed with ideas that would less affect the persuasion of a reader. This is because he uses examples from myths and Gods.
1. Being in a group affects the way people think or what they believe.
ReplyDelete2. In Doris Lessing’s article “Group Minds,” she purposes the idea that people tend to live their lives in groups. Being in a group affects the way people think or what they believe. Individuals get into groups of which they have similar interests, whether it be within the family, work groups, social, religious or political groups. Lessing argues that the hardest thing in the world is to maintain an individual dissident opinion when being a member in a group. With an experiment by a researcher, Lessing proves that the minority will usually give in to what the majority believes is right.
-Tina Bui
1. I find the article “Opinions and Social Pressure” convincing because I have witness some situations like this and experienced it myself but I would like to see more dialogues in the story to get a better image of what is going on.
ReplyDelete2. People face social pressure one way or another. Some might be when people or friends are telling someone to do something that they do not want to do. Others like in the article “Opinions and Social Pressure” by Solomon E. Asch, student are pressured by their classmates without having a word said to the student. If the majority of people around the person do not share the same belief then the minority tend to go with the majority.
Eduardo
1. Lessing’s informal approach of her rather serious criticism of Western society results in forming a clear, coherent, and consenting essay.
ReplyDelete2. First Paragraph:
The majority of people take offense against a criticism they know is true. When an accusation is made against all of Western society, in order to convey his or her own thoughts, the accuser’s approach must be appropriate to avoid conflict. Doris Lessing, in her essay “Group Minds,” claims that most Westerners maintain an idea of themselves far from actuality. Most Westerners try to uphold the basic idea of democracy in their lives, that is the right to fight for and purse their own ambitions and beliefs. Westerners fail to realize that their lives are a complete different representation of that belief. Lessing verifies this by demonstrating that most people tend to have more faith in groups than in themselves. “The family, work groups, social, religious and political groups” are examples that Lessing uses to illustrate her idea. As straightforward as she is in her communicating her idea, Lessing’s delivery of her idea is very informal and works for this essay. Even though it is a criticism of people, the essay’s informality and style allows the audience to view her idea and accept it with rather ease than take offense and ignore the message completely. Lessing’s informal approach of her rather serious criticism of Western society results in forming a clear, coherent, and consenting essay.
Gustavo Diaz
Robert Moran
ReplyDelete1. "Authority and Excuses" by Alan Strudler and Danielle Warren not only provides straight-forward facts about authority's mental power over people, but it has philosophical and in depth analysis on their views; The authors' form is organized into six equal paragraphs each describing a component of the power of authority on individuals, but the form unfortunately does not provide personal anecdotes that could have enhanced the essay.
2. It has been questioned that whether or not people follow the orders of Authority even if it is immoral to them. Who is to blame in the end? Is it the the ordinary person who did the actual wrongdoing or is it the authority figure who told this ordinary person to do what he or she was told to do? In "Authority and Excuses" by Alan Strudler and Danielle Warren it describes how people use shortcuts called "heuristics" that confuse them on what's ethically correct. He then describes the whole concept of "blame" and that should we really blame someone for a wrongful action, if in the end most of humanity would have done the same. The authors Strudley and Warren however do not use dialogue, charts, personal stories to help enhance the essay, but does provide a philosophical and in depth analysis on examples of certain scientists thoughts and actions, mainly the infamous experiment of Stanley Milgram. Furthermore, other articles similar to "Authority and Excuses" do not provide an analysis on the concept of blame.
One Sentence: Although the overall form of Fromm’s article allows the reader to have a personal connection and keeps the reader intrigued, the overall content of the article is less convincing; Fromm’s use of religious and mythical “evidence” simply weakens his overall government of disobedience, establishing a weak foundation for his argument.
ReplyDeleteFirst Paragraph:
Erich Fromm’s “Disobedience as a Psychological and Moral Problem,” offers the eye-opening assumption that as disobedience led to the creation of the civilization, obedience will lead us back to our own self-destruction. Whether Eve’s eating of forbidden apple or Prometheus’ stealing the fire from the Gods, Fromm depicts that this act of disobedience gave way to a human society of independence and free will. Through his analysis, Fromm gives way to the reality that the majority of the human race has been programmed to obey the rules of a few. He goes on to describe the necessity for one’s disobedience for the sake of the human race. Although the overall form of Fromm’s article allows the reader to have a personal connection and keeps the reader intrigued, the overall content of the article is less convincing; Fromm’s use of religious and mythical “evidence” simply weakens his overall government of disobedience, establishing a weak foundation for his argument.
Shawn
ReplyDelete1. In order to prosper as a society and as a people disobedience is necessary.
2. In Disobedience as a Psychological and Moral Problem the author, Erich Fromm, introduces his idea that disobedience is necessary in order to prosper as a society. He gives validity to his beliefs by using different anecdotes to illustrate his perspective. He uses a biblical context when he refers to Adam and Eve and tells how they “cut the umbilical cord” and “emerged from a pre-human harmony.” In addition to this reference he also makes more references to Greek Mythology as well when talks about Prometheus and him stealing the fire from the Gods.
Erick Soto-Sanchez
ReplyDelete(1)Opinions and Social Pressure makes a strong argument that social pressure can and does constrain people’s opinions to a certain extent.
(2)In the article Opinions and Social Pressure, Solomon Asch argues that people sometimes feel the strong effect of social pressure that it forces them alienate their own opinion. Asch explains the results of his experiments and how the subjects would give in to the pressure of the group even thought the rest of the group was instructed to answer incorrectly. Asch also gives circumstances where the subjects would not give in to the social pressure of the group. Asch also argues that people give in to manipulation from propaganda without knowing the whole story.
1)“The Perils of Obedience” was an essay written effectively because the results of the experiment were not expected but overall proven by Milgram, the explanations given by the subjects on why they continued the experiment where interesting, and the written format on how the information was presented conveyed the importance to the reader.
ReplyDelete2)The Nuremberg Trials where tribunals that put on trial military men and women that committed atrocities in Nazi concentration camps during World War II. The people that committed these crimes defended themselves by pleading not guilty due to the fact that they were just following orders from their superiors. In “The Perils of Obedience” by Stanley Milgram, Milgram is inspired by this events to conduct an experiment that will show how much pain an ordinary person is willing to administrate another human being because he or she is ordered to by a higher authority. The experiment consist of three people the scientist, learner (actor) and the subject on who the experiment is being conducted on. The subject is told that this experiment is to observe the effects on punishment on learning and after taken to a machine that administrates shocks from 15 to 450 volts. The experimenter tells the subject to administrate a shock to the learner if he does not have the capacity to remember the second word of a pair when he hears the first one again. The essay goes on to show us the results and reactions of the subject during and after the experiment. “The Perils of Obedience” was an essay written effectively because the results of the experiment were not expected but overall proven by Milgram, the explanations given by the subjects on why they continued the experiment where interesting, and the written format on how the information was presented conveyed the importance to the reader.
-Brenda Luisjuan
1. The content of this review of Milgram's experiment is informative and unbiased, however, the quotes are overwhelming to the form of the essay and take away attention from the content facts.
ReplyDelete2."'They obey as long as the command comes from legitimate authority'" is one of the points Moti Nissani highlights in "Review of Stanley Milgram's Experiment on Obedience". He discussed how people blindly obey their authority's orders without feeling responsible for the harm they cause others. This review gives credit to different point of views so it provides a wide range of information without being biased. Although the repetitive quotes throughout the essay provide information, it does not provide a better form to essay. Nissami examines the validity of the experiment and the people's reaction tendencies to authority.
-LiLi-
Ivan Lara
ReplyDelete(1) “How, and to what extent, do social forces constrain people’s opinions and attitudes?” was a question developed by no other than Solomon E. Asch from the Institute of Advanced Study, by testing his hypothesis he was able to prove the extent of people’s constrains before they gave into social pressure.
(2)The experiment conducted by Solomon E. Asch was a great success. There has been no other scientists that have accomplished what he has. Solomon tested a group of college students to see how social pressure influenced their decisions and attitudes. Who would have thought that other people’s decisions play a great part on people’s lives. This is something that goes on under people’s noses without being noticed. The article “Opinions and Social Pressure”, by Solomon Asch included the idea that people are more confident with the decisions they make when they have someone else’s support for example a partner. This was proven to be true by who else but Solomon.
Thesis Statement:
ReplyDeleteMilgram’s critical content presented in his article and methods are very good and the form it is written helps the essay be more clear and reliable for resource.
In The Perils of Obedience by Stanley Milgram, Milgram states his position toward the obedience as human beings have towards higher authorities. He makes this statement by the experiment which he was able to do at Yale University in 1974. Bringing in different people and testing to see to what extent would they listen and hurt others only because it was said by a higher authority, was his experiment. His sources and report of the experiment are liable and valuable because they show how it is human instinct to listen and obey to other who seem to have a higher positions demand. However, there could be more experiments done to today’s decade to see if the experiment would still work and analyze from there. Also, his form of writing his article, the way it is spread out in the paper, and the methods used to gather the information together, makes it seem more scientific, therefore, making readers believe it more.
Janette
critique:
ReplyDelete[On the article "Authority and Excuses" by Alan Strudler and Danielle Warren.]
Contentwise, his use of examples and strong, concluding thoughts are effective in convincing readers about the arguments the author is trying to make, while the format he uses is also successful in helping the readers understand the main points the author tries to prove.
Paragraph:
People follow orders when given to them from authority figures. What happens when following these orders means hurting another human being and putting them though unimaginable amounts of pain? Authors Alan Strudler and Danielle Warren discuss this issue in their article, "Authority and Excuses." In this piece, the authors make a note that people will follow the orders of authority to certain extremes, for a variety of reasons and, as their title suggests, excuses. These excuses vary from things such as respect, a sense of responsibility, reliability imposed on them, a belief that the expert knows best, following everyone else’s subordination to authority, and intimidation. They explain the logic behind these excuses that people seem to lean on. Using the Milgram experiments as their primary source for proof of such claims to be true, the authors examine and analyze how Milgram’s subjects are not an exception.
--Erika--
I really enjoyed reading Authority and Excuses by Alan Strudler and Danielle Warren, it not only was interesting but it also made me think and put myself into different situations and identify how I, too was using heuristics wrong.
ReplyDeleteAccording to Webster’s dictionary, heuristic is defined as an adjective for experience-based techniques that help in problem solving, learning and discovery. In the article Authority and Excuses, Alan Strudler and Danielle Warren critiques Stanley Milgrams experiment. The experiment attempts to explain why people obey authority figures whether he or she knows it is wrong or right, the people that were used in the experiment were well to do ordinary people and were put in unlikely situations to see how they would respond to wrongdoings. In the end the people that were used tried to put the blame on everyone else besides themselves. So if an individual with some authority demanded an ordinary individual to commit an immoral crime and he or she did it, who should then carry the blame?