...An article by Erich Fromm, “Disobedience as a Psychological and Moral Problem ” introduces the idea that human history commenced from disobedience; yet it is been frowned upon for centuries. Erich Fromm, a psychoanalysis and a sociologist, was one of the most prominent writers in the twentieth century. Consequently, Fromm made distinctions to differentiate the types of obedience that humans experience. Obedience as an idea is derived from the ground needs of a humans to want and need but also fear the consequences of disobedience. Firstly, Fromm established the two different views on how human history started through disobedience following the Hebrew and Greek myths. Specifically, Adam and Eve, who broke their disobedience with nature and...
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...Stephanie Rock Professor Hoover Eng 112 Web 15 February 2013 Final Draft: Critique Paper To Do or Not to Do? : A Critique of "Disobedience as a Psychological and Moral Problem Do we do it or do we not do is always the big question, is it not? In the article “Disobedience as a Psychological and Moral Problem”, Erich Fromm explains how society has always defined “obedience is a virtue and that disobedience is a vice” (p. 683). As a well known writer and thinker, Psychoanalyst, philosopher, historian and sociologist, Fromm believed that “human history began with an act of disobedience, and it is not unlikely that it will be, terminated by an act of obedience” (p. 683). How many of us have done something without even thinking about it simply because we were told to do it? That is exactly where Fromm is going with this article. Are we doing something because we are told to or are we doing it because we are scared of what may happen if we don’t? But is that always the right answer? Although Fromm’s ideas were organized and the evidence he used to support his argument was effective, the counter argument is missing. Fromm is trying to get us to understand that by man being introduced to the world by disobedience, whether it be from Adam and Eve or Prometheus, we now have to answer to a authority figure, which in return having to obey to that authority figure will end the world. Fromm’s fear and worry is just that. If we get in the habit and routine of doing...
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...work outside her home because she is a women. Sara Bahai advocates Afghanistan women to live independently and to financially support their family, stand up for themselves and in so doing she hopes one day to make a change. Sara Bahai is disobeying what her culture tells her based on the opinion of men. If Sara Bahai obeyed laws of customs of the male society, she would be going against her personal moral judgment and her humanistic conscience. If Sara Bahai didn't disobey what her culture tells she would be an intellectual slave. Fromm uses as an example of disobedience from the Greek Myth for Prometheus. Prometheus steals the fire from the Gods and gives it to humans, which is an act of disobedience. But with this action, Prometheus helps man’s evolution. The act of disobedience is a one of the necessary steps for the human evolution and growth. Prometheus does not regret his action and he gets his punishment. The author gives us this reference in order to show us how disobedience can be a good thing for somebody. Eric Fromm says that obedience is a psychological and moral problem that can have a negative impact on individuals. Humanistic conscience is when a person wants to please themselves and that will lead to a good result to them. Humanistic Conscience is when someone is interested in whatever helps someone based on what's right and wrong. Authoritarian conscience would be the conscience when someone is...
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...ACP W131 Mr. Scanlan 19 October, 2015 Comparative Critique Obedience and Disobedience has been a part of key moments in history. Many have studied forms of obedience to learn how it affects people and situations. For example, Stanley Milgram conducted a well-known experiment in which the subject, named the “teacher” must shock the “learner” every time he doesn’t remember a word pair from a memory test. The focus of this study is on the teacher, and whether they will administer killing shocks when told to by an authority figure. Another well-known experiment is the Stanford Prison Experiment conducted by Philip Zimbardo. A group of college boys were separated into two groups, prison guards and prisoners, and were put into a mock prison to test how obedience plays out in a prison setting. Many others have studied obedience and discussed key aspects of them. In Erich Fromm’s “Disobedience as a Psychological and Moral Problem”, Fromm discusses varieties of obedience and disobedience. He argues that Similarly Theodore Dalrymple examines blind disobedience to authority in his article “Just Do What the Pilot Tells You”. Dalrymple argues that there needs to be a balance between obedience and disobedience. Fromm begins his article by pointing out that for centuries people believed that disobedience is a vice and obedience is a virtue. He goes on by stating that in actuality obedience and disobedience can be either a vice or virtue depending on certain situations. He defines the...
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...Third Paper: Analysis Obedience and disobedience to the authority has always been a favorite topic of psychologists and researchers. Stanley Milgram’s experiments shows that people are more often to submit themselves toward authority as compared to the people who disobey. According to Milgram, the pillars or support of the society is being threatened by disobedience. On the contrary, Erich Fromm rejects the theory of “obedience is a virtue and that disobedience is a vice”(621). Human history has formed by an act of disobedience by Adam and Eve, who were living in heaven obediently but a little act of disobedience changed everything. Fromm claims that their act of disobedience opened their eyes. After disobedience, man created his own heaven. Acts of disobedience evolved and changed by time. Milgram’s and Fromm’s theories are opposite to each other, one supports obedience and other doesn’t....
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...Fromm’s essay ”Disobedience as a Psychological and Moral Problem,” he discusses and compares the impact of human obedience and disobedience to ones self and to human society. While discussing both obedience and disobedience, Fromm opens his essay with “For centuries, kings, priests, feudal lords, industrial bosses, and parents have insisted that obedience is a virtue and that disobedience is a vice.” Immediately after this statement, he gives strong points of views opposing the statement of disobedience being a vice. In the “Anthem,” Ayn Rand tells a story about a place in unspecified future period, where people no longer have their own individual rights, and collectivism is leading the entire society. It's a dystopian sci-fi novella set in the future when mankind has entered another dark age as a result of the evils of society. She introduces a boy named Equality 7-2521 who is disobedient to the Council of Vocations and experiences self-growth and freedom. Disobedience is an act of courage, necessary for the individual to fight against the unreasonable demands of authority. Fromm writes, “Human history began with an act of disobedience, and it is not unlikely that it will be, terminated by an act of obedience,” supporting his statement that obedience might as well “cause the end of human history.” He uses religious and mythological figures to demonstrate disobedience being the foundation to human progression. “Human history was ushered in by an act of disobedience according to...
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...Running Head: Psychological and Motivational Factors Involved with Obedience Psychological and Motivational Factors Involved with Obedience Crimes The dynamics of obedience have been researched for decades in an attempt to explain what causes humans to commit atrocious acts such as the Holocaust and why crimes of obedience are so prevalent in society. Are all people capable of committing crimes of obedience given the right situation? Is there a certain disposition or combination of personality traits that leads to crimes of obedience? Situations are unique and dispositions vary; attempting to distinguish what causes these occurrences is a complex task that has been the subject of numerous studies, yet no concrete answers are found. Stanley Milgram’s obedience experiments ignited the flame of a subject that, instead of diminishing over time and becoming obsolete as a result of improved methods and new ideologies, has remained at the forefront of social and behavioral psychology. Modern research faces the critical challenge of attempting to study obedience under much more restrictive guidelines than previous studies; the results that are produced can only hope to shed light on one component of obedience and use other studies to synthesize a more complete explanation. The predecessor to all of this modern research was the Milgram obedience experiment and all of its variations. It has remained a fixture of social psychology for so long for several reasons: the...
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...This is a critique of Disobedience as a Psychological and Moral Problem by Eric Fromm, written in 1963. Fromm states in his article that disobedience is what originally set the human race on the path to thinking on their own, but obedience to authority in the end will be what kills us all. Overall his article has several compelling reasons to believe his theory, but it is also not completely believable for several reasons. There are several points that are debatable and his high use of emotion alone could cause one to question his article on a whole. Fromm being a psychoanalyst, sociologist, historian, and philosopher may have contributed to his using the pull of emotion so much. In his article Fromm states that history began with an act of disobedience and that history will possibly end with an act of obedience. Adam and Eve’s disobedience caused humans to then rely on themselves, and that until this happened humans were not able to fully develop the ability to reason or love. Similar to Adam and Eve, other cultures also have their own stories of how history began with disobedience. Through disobedience man has continued to evolve spiritually and intellectually, through this enlightening was learned that not all disobedience is a virtue and not all obedience is vice. Fromm defines autonomous obedience or humanistic conscience as obeying yourself, and this is not submissive. Heteronomous obedience or authoritarian...
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...Obeying rules, both unspoken and spoken, is second nature to mankind. It has become habitual to conform to the orders of authority in order to promote obedience as a social virtue. This often leads man to equate disobedience with sin, which traces as far back as the biblical account of Adam, Eve, and the Serpent. However, neither disobedience nor obedience could exist without the power of an authority figure to dictate the rules and restraints of submission. In his article “The Perils of Obedience,” Yale psychologist Stanley Milgram asserts that authority as a whole is an essential component of social living and that obedience to this authority is a social behavior unknowingly entrenched in a majority of the population. Milgram’s scientific review explores this claim as he shares data from his experiment in which subjects blindly obey someone they believe to be an expert, simply due to his prompting. Supported with reactions...
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...– The LD File Civil Disobedience Index Topic Overview 3-7 Definitions 8-10 Affirmative Cases 11-19 Negative Cases 20-25 Affirmative Extensions 26-34 Civil disobedience worked to free India. 26 Civil disobedience overthrew the communists in Poland. 26 The tradition of civil disobedience in America goes all the way back to the founders. 26 Civil disobedience can serve to prevent situations from escalating into violence. 27 Civil Disobedience has been used to promote peace. 27 Civil disobedience was used to promote racial equality. 27 Civil disobedience is used to try to prevent the destruction of the environment. 27 Civil disobedience is effective at changing the law. 28 Legal channels can take too long. 28 Consent to obey just laws does not imply consent to obey unjust ones. 28 Distinguishing between just and unjust laws to disobey can be universalized. 28 Civil disobedience can be stabilizing to a community by spreading a shared sense of justice. 29 Sometimes it is only the unjustified response to civil disobedience that has harmful consequence. 29 Civil disobedience is traditionally non-violent. 29 Civil disobedience is a form of exercising free speech- which is essential in a democracy. 30 Civil disobedience has been used to fight slave laws 30 Civil disobedience played a role in ending the Vietnam war. 30 Civil disobedience shouldn’t be punished-...
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...English 200 Argumentative Synthesis DeAloia Length: 3—4 pages, formatted according to MLA style Audience: College-level reader familiar with the work of Frederick Douglass and of Erich Fromm at a general level Purpose: In this assignment you will use three skills fundamental to academic writing—summarizing, analyzing, and synthesizing. These skills will also help begin to build our theme, the tensions and complexities involved in the struggle between free will and obedience. Points: 100 Due Dates: 11:00 p.m., February 10: Send thesis paragraph & outline of rough draft—as a Word document formatted according to MLA style*—to instructor via UD email attachment Optional: on your own and as you wish, arrange to exchange rough drafts with a peer for feedback via Isidore Chat, visit the Write Place, and/or visit DeAloia during office hours with your questions* 11:00 p.m., February 12: Instructor provides feedback on thesis paragraphs & outlines of rough drafts via UD email attachment 11:00 p.m., February 14**: As an attachment in Word, submit final draft of Argumentative Synthesis to Isidore Assignments, “Argumentative Synthesis” *NOTE: For additional information on how to prepare...
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...Crime load and head of Mafia member Vito Rizzuto did not make the best possible choices in his decisions. Once Rizzuto was to be released from prison in October 2012, he will revenge the death of his family members that were killed while he was in prison. The Mafia family that killed his father, son, and other family members will be killed after he is released from prison for the murders of his family. Given the circumstances the mafia crime load Rizzuto should let law enforcement do their jobs but some have higher people on their payroll and the law will not touch some of them, so the death of Rizzuto family’s means the death of that mafia family. I do not see myself acting similar in similar circumstances. I would rather the law handle the situation instead of me murdering someone and risk going to prison for taking another person life. The thief that was stripped and tied to a lamppost with cling wrap film by a mob of vigilantism. The thief was attempting to rob a pensioner with a knife at his throat and was disarmed by the mob, he was stripped of his clothes, and wrapped in plastic wrap and then cling wrapped to a pole until the police arrived. I believe the mob made a good decision given the circumstances because had the mob not stopped the thief the situation could had result in the pensioner getting badly hurt. To find myself in a similar situation where a mob got together to help someone I may find myself acting on impulse to help that individual...
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...Borough of Manhattan Community College City University of New York Department of English Disobedience as a Psychological and Moral Problem by Erich Fromm For centuries kings, priests, feudal lords, industrial bosses and parents have insisted that obedience is a virtue and that disobedience is a vice. In order to introduce another point of view, let us set against this position the following statement: human history began with an act of disobedience, and it is not unlikely that it will be, terminated by an act of obedience. Human history was ushered in by an act of disobedience according to the Hebrew and Greek myths. Adam and Eve, living in the Garden of Eden, were part of nature; they were in harmony with it, yet did not transcend it. They were in nature as the fetus is in the womb of the mother. They were human, and at the same time not yet human. All this changed when they disobeyed an order. By breaking the ties with earth and mother, by cutting...
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...A person’s psychological reasoning is affected by numerous things, some of which Erick Fromm points out in his article, “Disobedience as a Psychological and Moral Problem.” He includes multiple types of obedience that can affect a person’s reaction to obedience. One of the types of obedience he describes is ‘autonomous obedience,’ which Fromm describes as “not an act of submission but one of affirmation” (125). This type of obedience is usually the most common form of obedience in a person’s daily life. Sometimes this person’s own affirmation of the orders is not always completely based on their own morals, but is sometimes influenced by morals and ethics that a superior instills in the person to be right. Even more drastic than this is ‘heteronomous obedience,’ which Fromm describes as “complete submission” (125). Thus, a person does not consider the orders to be malevolent at all, and or they do not consider their own ethics in this decision-making process. Furthermore, a person that is heteronomous obedient most often believes the superior to have their own best interest...
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...OUTLINE CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION A. Introductory Statement B. Statement of the Problem C. Significance of the Study D. Theoretical Framework E. Scope and Limitation F. Review of Related Literature CHAPTER TWO: JOHN RAWLS PHILOSOPHY A. Biography of John Rawls CHAPTER THREE: PHILIPPINE TAXATION A. Concept of Taxation B. Nature of Taxation and Its purpose C. Concept of Income Taxation D. Purpose of Taxation E. Current Uses of Taxation CHAPTER FOUR: SOCIAL JUSTICE IN TAXATION A. Social Justice B. Principles of Justice C. Well Ordered Society D. Original Position E. Veil of Ignorance F. Civil Disobedience CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSION CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION A. INTRODUCTORY STATEMENT The works of John Rawls was basically centered on justice as depicted on his work “Theory of Justice” and “Political Liberalism. John Rawls is considered to be one of the most influential philosophers during his time as he specialized in the concept of justice and fairness as a tool for attaining social justice in the society. His works received various criticisms since it may be viewed as unrealistic but though it may be criticized, his works are one of the influential and most bought book and already translated in various language to be used as curriculum in philosophy classes. Rawls differentiate the concept of justice and fairness as he tried to show that the idea of justice is fairness and...
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