Episode 176: Situationism in Psych: Milgram & Stanford Prison Experiments (Part Two)
The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast
Mark Linsenmayer
4.6 • 2.3K Ratings
🗓️ 13 November 2017
⏱️ 58 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Continuing with Dave Pizarro on articles by Stanley Milgram, Philip Zimbardo, and John Doris about situationism, which entails that people's level of morality will vary by situation, as opposed to virtue ethics, which posits that how people will act in a novel situation will be determined by the quality of their character.
Listen to part 1 first or get the ad-free Citizen Edition. Please support PEL!
End song: "Doing the Wrong Thing" by Kaki King, as heard on Nakedly Examined Music #54.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | The bell is for me, not for you. |
| 0:02.9 | Although, if you're a teacher like me, it is for you. |
| 0:05.6 | Because PGL School Adventures is bringing an exciting new approach to learning outside the classroom. |
| 0:10.5 | They've been powering breakthroughs for school children for over 65 years. |
| 0:14.1 | And their new outdoor education program called Reach is specifically designed to spark breakthroughs in confidence, |
| 0:19.5 | teamwork, independence, maybe even archery. |
| 0:22.4 | So many inspiring adventures await that make learning anything but textbook. |
| 0:26.6 | Search PGL School Adventures. |
| 0:30.2 | The partial exam in life depends on your support. |
| 0:32.8 | To find out how to do that in ways that are cheap or even free, go to partialexamenlife.com slash support. |
| 0:46.6 | Hey, you're listening to the partially examined life episode 175 part two with guest David Pizarro from the very bad wizards podcast. |
| 0:54.6 | We have talked through Stanley Milgram's behavioral study of obedience experiment. |
| 0:58.6 | Phil Zimbardo's interpersonal dynamics and a simulated prison experiment. |
| 1:02.4 | So you were just asking us, David, what do you think the upshot actually is of this? |
| 1:07.8 | Yeah, exactly. |
| 1:09.3 | So the way you put it, you asked us if you think anyone could do these sorts of things. |
| 1:15.1 | And then we also have this paper by John Doris, person situations and virtue ethics. |
| 1:22.7 | And in that paper, well, it's worth just reading quickly the early thesis here. |
| 1:28.6 | This is page six to summarize according to the first situation is thesis behavioral variation among individuals, |
| 1:34.9 | often as more to distinct circumstances than distinct personalities. |
| 1:38.9 | The difference between the person who behaves honestly and the one who fails to do so. |
| 1:42.8 | For example, maybe more a function of situation than character, |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Mark Linsenmayer, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Mark Linsenmayer and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.

