Milgram Experiment

Through Milgram's experiment, we can see what kind of an action agency theory believes as a free action. Agency theory believes that a free act is an act caused by an agent. In this experiment, the one who is commanding to continue the experiment acts as an agent, so in this case, his commands and pressure are becoming the cause for the person who is causing electric shock. Therefore, people who believe in agency theory would say that person who is causing electric shock is actually free, because the action is caused by an agent. However, agency theory would not fully agree with the principle of universal causality, because they believe that every event has a cause, but not in a causal chain with a very long history. Also when we compare Agency theory with scientific determinists, they, scientific determinists, would not agree that person who is causing shock is actually free, because they define free action as an event without a cause. But then as unversal causality says everything is caused by cause, person's action in this experiment is not free. Same as determinists, indeterminists would also say that this man is not free, becuase there was a cause which is commander, who caused him to cause electric shock. However, compatibilist would say that the action is free because this action was caused by an inner state of that person, or decision to act.

When we sum all these up, we can see that this man was actually free according to the Agency theory. However, we can't judge whether he was ethical or not because even though he was free, he was ordered to give an electric shot. With the agency theory, he would unethical as this was his freewill. However, in reality, it would be hard to judge whether he is ethical or not.