Stanford Prison Experiment organized by Stanford researcher Philip Zimbardo led to a strong public response. The results of the experiment and its ethical issues are still discussed today. Referring to Zimbardo himself, as well as documentaries based on the experiment, Maria Popova explicitly describes its astonishing outcomes. Assigned with the roles of prisoners and guards, college students demonstrated that one’s actions can be easily influenced by the models of behavior dictated by society.
These results raise questions about the power of social influence and authority. The main outcome of the whole experiment is reflected in a famous line from “Shooting an Elephant” by George Orwell (1936): “He wears a mask, and his face grows to fit it” (para. 7). Indeed, all people participating in Stanford Prison Experiment were wearing imaginary masks that shaped their behavior and revealed the cruelty they could never expect from themselves. Like the officer who was encouraged by society to shoot an elephant, “guards” demonstrated abusive behavior, even though they could not do it in typical circumstances. “Prisoners,” on the other hand, started feeling intimidated and unimportant. Do the character and will of an individual have any power against social pressure and imposed models of behavior? It is a question that still needs to be answered.
The article proves that issues covered by the experiment attracted public attention. The findings are not only concerned with relationships between an individual and society. They can apply to politics, family, working environment, or any other situation when a person’s behavior can be influenced by an authority. Therefore, the main task of every person is not to lose themselves behind the mask they wear since thoughts and will are what shape one’s character and actions.
Reference
Orwell, G. (1936). Shooting an Elephant. Orwell Foundation.
East India Company: The Story Of India’s Freedom
The sixth episode of the BBC documentary series is devoted to the history of India’s independence from the influence of other states. Attention is paid to the East India Company’s enormous power, which in the 19th century managed to take under its huge significant sea and land territories. The episode’s creators examine the East India Company archives at the British Library in London.
The British East India Company, like its Dutch counterpart, was a state within a state. Having its army and actively influencing the British Empire’s development became one of the most critical factors in the state’s brilliant financial position. The company allowed the British to create a colonial empire, including the pearl of the British crown – India.
In addition to historical information and descriptions of political events, the show tells about technology development. Particular attention is paid to the growth of production of printed publications: newspapers and books. The availability of literature led to education availability, which later became one reason for the struggle for independence and getting rid of foreign oppression.
Overall, the episode reveals a causal relationship between historical events that influenced the formation of modern India. This country is affected by many completely different cultural paradigms: ancient traditional foundations, Western influence, the struggle for freedom, and socialism. Influenced by many different cultures, India is a unique country with a unique flavor and national characteristics.
The final section of this epic journey of “over ten thousand years and ten thousand miles,” as Wood put it, briefly looks at the first 45 years of socialist-influenced planning and the last 15 years of unrestrained growth as India is rapidly rising to one day become a world power. However, as a result of the independence movement in 1947, India gained its freedom.
Worldview Analysis And Personal Inventory
Christian ethics, or the moral teaching of Christianity, determines the ethical guidelines of human behavior. Christianity’s ethics is expressed in a Christian ethos, a certain style of life, diverse in its manifestations and inherent in both individuals and large social groups. People who follow Christian ethics have a high level of spirituality; in other words, they keep track of their thoughts and feelings and try to direct them according to their religion. The actions and behavior of Christ, as well as His very way of life, are an example and standard for His followers. Christian ethics emphasizes the need for grace and mercy (including the forgiveness of sins) for a human, the source of which is God.
Representatives of postmodern relativism take a different point of view on ethical issues. Relativism is a philosophical doctrine that claims that all knowledge is relative, and there is no absolute truth. There are only truths that a particular person or culture accepts. This is the point of view according to which all this is a subjective result of various conventions and systems of assessment. Where is truth, and where is falsehood, what is right and wrong, what are the standards of reasoning – answers to these questions are also subjective. The importance of these judgments and conclusions is limited by the context that gave rise to them. In the health care sector, ethical issues are determined by standards set by government systems. They do not rely on people’s religious beliefs but on rational judgments built in a secular society. This allows the creation of certain standards that empower health care professionals to act and make decisions even at critical moments.
Scientism is a general pejorative name for an ideological position that represents scientific knowledge as the highest cultural value and a fundamental factor in human interaction with the world. Scientism itself is not a coherent system of views but rather can be seen as a certain orientation of various systems that have gained widespread popularity. They are now a part of the opinions of researchers and the general public. Scientism can be defined as a science viewed as a religion since researchers elevate it to dogma’s rank, which they turn into an imperative (Ridder, Peels & Woudenberg, 2018). Often, people accepted scientism consider physics or mathematics to be exemplary sciences and call to build other sciences in their image and likeness. The term scientism has a significant pejorative connotation. The term scientism is rarely used as a self-name but is used by critics of this concept.
According to anti-scientism, by invading all spheres of human life, science makes people soulless, devoid of romance and a human face. Those who accept scientism as the primary belief stop seeing the world’s beauty and try to explain any event with rational arguments. This narrows their horizons and emotional range, which can negatively affect their quality of life. In addition, the suppression of individual and natural principles in a person reduces all the diversity of the personality to only one technocratic parameter. A modern person, in particular a technical specialist, is subject to a large number of overloads and stresses, and these circumstances indicate a painful and abnormal state of modern society. Not only specialists in technical specialties but also humanities are squeezed by the grip of normativeness and obligation.
Ultimate reality is something that stands above the surrounding world perceived by a person. It cannot be described, defined, and cognized by a rational intellect. In other words, it is something beyond human understanding. It is a collection of all real objects and what stands behind them – spiritual and emotional. In particular, some believe that God is the ultimate reality: He is everything, and everything is Him. However, in any case, this kind of reality cannot be expressed in words since the human brain alone cannot process and convey this phenomenon.
The world of dense matter, characterized by three-dimensional space, linear time, and inexorable causality, does not in itself have an independent existence. It is not the only true reality that materialistic science portrays. The world did not arise by chance, by itself. This world is the Creation of Absolute Consciousness. In the light of these insights, the material world of our daily life, including our body, appears to be a complex interweaving of misperceptions and interpretations. Our Universe, containing countless myriads of stars, worlds, separate entities, and elements, by its deepest nature is a Living Being of infinite scale and unimaginable complexity. The greatness of this Creation is incomprehensible to our material mind.
Humans social beings with reason and consciousness and a subject of social and historical activity and culture. People’s specific features that distinguish them from other animals are upright walking, a highly developed brain, thinking, and articulate speech. People study and change themselves and the world around them, creating a culture and history. The essence of people, their origin and purpose, and their place in the world have been and remain the main problems of philosophy, religion, science, and art. The distinctive features of a human are the ability to think, exercise free choice, take responsibility for actions, and the presence of moral judgments. Not a single other creature is known that has higher emotions, traditions, the ability to think, affirm, deny, count, plan, knows about its mortality, loves in the real sense of the word, has a sense of humor, realizes goals, reproduces what is available, and creates what something new.
Knowledge is a result of cognition that can be logically or factually substantiated and empirically or practically tested. According to the widespread interpretation of modern epistemology, knowledge is a real state of affairs, a person’s conviction based on facts and rational arguments. Speaking of knowledge, most often, people mean the reflection of reality in the consciousness of a person. Science and its methods aim to obtain knowledge about the structure of objects and phenomena, about their essential interrelationships. Knowledge is the opposite of ignorance (lack of information), but it is also opposed to faith. Usually, knowledge is objectified, fixed, expressed in language or some other sign system, sign form. However, depending on what is meant by knowledge, it can be argued that knowledge can also be fixed in sensory images, obtained through direct perception.
My ethics base is not doing evil to other people. I believe that every person has positive qualities at heart. Each of us is originally born free, kind, loving, and open. Unfortunately, during the life process, people change and get traumatized. They close up, become angry or sad, sometimes even cruel. However, behind all this is a naive and scared child, in whom there is nothing bad or evil. Therefore, I try to treat others with understanding and empathy, even if they behave the way I think is not right. It helps me build relationships with people, better understand their behavior, and cultivate my own moral qualities. I try to teach close people this position because such an understanding is something that many modern people lack. I hope that, in the future, we will be able to understand each other and treat people with patience and trust.
The purpose of my existence is to create or accomplish something that will make this world a better place. I suppose that it is a primary goal for many people because it is something that is worth living for. At the moment, I cannot determine exactly what it will be, but I am trying to find this action or work. This can be the birth of children and teaching positive moral values to them. It could be a work of art or a company that has a beneficial effect on the world. Perhaps I will find myself in political activity and be able to change the structure of a certain part of the planet for the best. In any case, I try to move towards realizing my potential and improving the world.
Reference
Ridder, J., Peels, R., & Woudenberg, R. (2018). Scientism: Prospects and problems. Oxford University Press.