The CyberPhilosopher

I have been reading “Mind of the Market” by Michael Shermer and he discusses two different Psychology experiments that have been conducted that show how much environment and situation can have an effect on our actions, i.e. if we behave what we would consider in a good way or a bad way.

The first experiment is the Stanford Prison Experiment (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_prison_experiment ). Can I just say, this is wacky.  Many, like myself, who are not psychologist most likely got their first exposure to this study after the situation happened at Abu Ghraib.  What it showed is that people, who by all indications were normal, non-masocistic or sadistic, individuals, after being put into a system, became a product of that system.  Ok, that is at least my simplification of the results, but the end result is that the normal individuals that become guards became the kind of people you hate in movies, and the people that became prisoners became the type of people you feel sorry for in movies (dispite knowing they are in prison for some reason).

The second study, the Milgram Experiment (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment) showed the different situations also affected how we act.  In this experiment individuals were told to press a button that would inflict a lethal charge to a person (of course, it was fake, but the person didn’t realize that).  When asked to do it outright, most people refused (only 1.2% were willing to).  However, when asked to gradually increase, 60% were willing to.   This study makes me think about slippery slope arguements in a new light. 

It made me think about how rules, rational or not, are important for life, lest we get swept up in the moment.  Now, this is a place where I guess religion fits perfect.  A religion sets down straight rules which slip only a long period of time.  It made me wonder if fanatical morality is the only true morality?  Now, I dont mean being a fanatic, that has its on issues.  What I mean is having a clear set of “do’s” and “don’ts” that are understood and actions validated against with the recognition that any failure to enforce them just moves you away from them in a very real fashion by changing the system you live in. 

I think a substitute for religion is fine here too; rational law, secular humanism, a philosophical systesm in general can all do the same thing if used properly and we understand the consequences.   Note I wrote Consequences.  Thats the most important piece in my mind.  If we adhear to our system because we want to go to ‘heaven’ then we can justify breaking it in order to go to heaven (think suicide bombers).  But if we have our system in order to have an orderly society and a consistent individual, then any break in the system is a failure.