Erin Poulsen
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 …show more content…

Dalrymple explains that “To such a person, all human relationships are essentially expressions of power. An order given by another person is thus a threat to his ego, because following orders is submission to power and nothing else: there can be no other reason for it” (Dalrymple 237). In Dalrymple’s opinion, to a blind disobedient person, all and any obedience is submission to authority. A blind disobedience person only sees relationships in terms of power, thus all obedience in their eyes is submission. Dalrymple expands on what Fromm wrote by providing a situation where heteronomous obedience is applied. Dalrymple explains that a blind disobedient person sees obedience to authority like Fromm defined. Citing old myths and tales, Fromm states that Disobedience began from the beginning of history and has been passed down ever since. He states “Human history was ushered in by an act of disobedience according to the Hebrew and Greek myths” (Dalrymple 228). Dalrymple mentions several different myths that all state that an act of disobedience, for example Adam and Eve and Prometheus, began the trend of disobedience. He then goes on by stating “Man has continued to evolve by acts of disobedience. Not only was his spiritual development possible only because there were men who dared to say no to the powers…” (Fromm 228). Fromm believes that men have been able to be disobedient because disobedience began history. But Dalrymple has a different opinion regarding how