The results of Milgram’s electric shock experiment showed that ordinary people show “willingness” to go to “almost any lengths” on the command of an authoritative figure. This shows that obedience is related to responsibility and that people are more willing to comply when they feel responsible for their actions. In later versions of these experiments, many unwilling participants continued to administer seemingly lethal shocks after the experimenters explicitly stated that they would take responsibility for what happened next, or stopped administering shocks if they declared that the responsibility lay with them. We act in one of two ways: either we act autonomously, assuming full responsibility for the outcome of our actions, or else we act as agents for others, relinquishing control to them and allowing them to take full responsibility for the outcomes of their decisions. Before we act as someone else’s agent, however, we must acknowledge that person’s authority as legitimate, morally, or legally—and believe that they carry responsibility for the consequences of their decisions.
Mind and brain
In many cultures around this world, there is the view that humans have a soul that exists independently of the physical body. For Greek philosophers, the soul was also viewed as the seat of our reasoning abilities - what we would call our minds today. While Aristotle...
