Are we morally obliged to obey even unjust laws? This question raises the discussion of what we call civil disobedience. Elliot Zashin, author of Civil Disobedience and Democracy, defines civil disobedience as, “a knowing violation of public norm (considered binding by local authorities but which may ultimately be invalidated by the courts) as a form of protest: it is non-revolutionary, public, and nonviolent (i.e. there is no use of physical violence except self-defensively when participants are physically attacked, and no resistance to arrest if made properly and without undue force).” (Zashin, 118) One point that Carl Cohen, associate professor of philosophy at University of Michigan, thinks is essential to the definition is that the, “mere knowledge of the unlawfulness does not make it civil disobedience…the civil disobedient must do more than knowingly break the law. Absolutely essential is the further element of protest.” (Cohen, 11) In other words, civil disobedience is knowingly breaking a law to protest the law. This may not be as controversial as some topics, but there are many strong points on both sides.
A major objection is tied to the idea of social contract theory as well as extreme faith in the proper workings of the judicial and legislative systems. According the this objection, the government of the United States, which calls itself democratic, for instance, is set up to listen to the needs of the people and to make laws accordingly. There is no need to protest or to “civilly disobey” because the government’s job is to take care of such problems. Socrates, a Greek philosopher, when forced with a suicide execution refused escape because he had profited from the laws of Athens thus far, was given a...
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
· Cohen, Carl, Civil Disobedience, Tactics and the Law. 1971, Columbia University Press: NY. Pgs: 3, 5, 6, 9, and 11.
· “Declaration of Independence” ONLINE: http://www.archives.gov/national_archives_experience/declaration_transcript.html. 20 Nov 03
· Singer, Peter, Practical Ethics: Second Edition. 1993, Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, UK. Pgs: 298-306
· Smith, Michael P, et al, Political Obligation and Civil Disobedience Readings. 1972, Thomas Y. Crowell Company: NY. Pgs. 179, 180, and 183.
· Suber, Peter, “Civil Disobedience.” ONLINE: http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/writing/civ-dis.htm. 19 Nov 03.
· Zashin, Elliot M., Civil Disobedience and Democracy. 1971, The Free Press: NY. Pgs. 118, and 131.
Fromm, Erich. "Disobedience as a Psychological and Moral Problem." Writing and Reading for ACP Composition. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Custom, 2009. 258-63. Print.
Civil disobedience spawns a major and widely debated issue by many who established by well-known intelligent scholars and many examples of civil disobedience become displayed. The acts of civil disobedience can be noted in major works such as Sophocles?s Antigone, King?s ?Letter from Birmingham Jail?, or even from Plato?s ?from Crito?. A specific claim exemplified throughout these works make that civil disobedience races in gaining popularity and should remain allowed, and continued to be seen as a solution to reform poorly established laws. A claim represented is, civil disobedience is right. Rhetorically, appeals such as credibility, logic and emotion can provide support for these claims.
History has encountered many different individuals whom have each impacted the 21 in one way or another; two important men whom have revolted against the government in order to achieve justice are Henry David Thoreau and Martin Luther King Jr. Both men impacted numerous individuals with their powerful words, their words carried the ability to inspire both men and women to do right by their morality and not follow unjust laws. “On the Duty of Civil Disobedience” by David Henry Thoreau along with King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, allow the audience to understand what it means to protest for what is moral.
Justice is often misconceived as injustice, and thus some essential matters that require more legal attentions than the others are neglected; ergo, some individuals aim to change that. The principles of civil disobedience, which are advocated in both “Civil Disobedience” by Henry David Thoreau and “Letter from Birmingham Jail” by Martin Luther King Jr. to the society, is present up to this time in the U.S. for that purpose.
Schultz, David, and John R. Vile. The Encyclopedia of Civil Liberties in America. 710-712. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Gale Virtual Reference Library, n.d. Web. 18 Mar. 2010. .
Fromm, Erich. “Disobedience as a Psychological and Moral Problem” Writing and Reading for ACP Composition. Ed. Thomas E. Leahy and Christine R. Farris. New York, New York: Pearson, 2009. 258-263. Print.
Thoreau, Henry D. “Civil Disobedience.” Walden, Civil Disobedience and Other Writings. New York: W.W Norton and Company, 2008. Print.
Pollerd, Jake. "State Versus the Individual: Civil Disobedience in Brave New World." In Bloom, Harold, ed. Civil Disobedience, Bloom's Literary Themes. New York: Chelsea House, 2009. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/acti velink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=&iPin=BLTCD008&SingleRecord=True (accessed March 25, 2011).
Democracy’s Prisoner Eugene V. Debs, The Great War, and The Right to Dissent is separated into 16 chapters which are: Dangerous Man; Never be a Soldier; War Declarations; Canton Picnic; Cleveland; Appeal; Long Trolley to Prison; Moundsville; Atlanta Penitentiary; An Amnesty Business on Every Block; Candidate 9653; The Trials of A. Mitchell Palmer; The Last Campaign; Lonely Obstinacy; Free Speech and Normalcy; and finally Last Flicker of the dying Candle. Democracy’s Prisoner also includes a prologue and ends with an epilogue, notes to pages, and index. Lastly, the book also includes pictures throughout the book.
William Smith, Democracy, Deliberation and Disobedience (Paper presented at the UK Association for Legal and Social Philosophy Annual Conference, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, April 2003).
There are many features of civil disobedience. Civil disobedience according to Rawls must be political in nature; agents engaged in civil disobedience must be appealing to a “common conception of justice”. It is aimed at changing the law, thus, it is a method requiring political engagement. The goal of this is to bring the law into conformity with the theory of justice. In order to make it a particularly clear case of rejecting the ou...
Are we morally obliged to obey even unjust laws? Think about what this means. This means that laws, regardless of how unfair, unjust, or immoral they may be, must be followed with no better reason that they are the law. To the thesis that we are obliged to obey even unjust laws, I will argue that the standard objections to Civil Disobedience, given by Singer, are incorrect
The prompt defines civil disobedience as “the act of opposing a law one considers unjust and peacefully disobeying it while accepting the consequences.” One can see from this definition that civil disobedience only opposes “unjust” laws. What then, is an unjust law? In his Letter from a Birmingham Jail, Martin Luther King Jr. recognized that an unjust law is one that infringes upon natural rights: “A just law is a man made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law. To put it in the terms of St. Thomas Aquinas: An unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law.” Since unjust laws infringe upon natural rights, and since civil disobedience opposes unjust laws, civil disobedience promotes governmental protection of natural
In his essay, “Resistance to Civil Government,” often times dubbed, “Civil Disobedience,” Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) argues against abiding to one’s State, in protest to the unjust laws within its government. Among many things, Thoreau was an American author, poet, and philosopher. He was a firm believer in the idea of civil disobedience, the act of refusing to obey certain laws of a government that are felt to be unjust. He opposed the laws regarding slavery, and did not support the Mexican-American war, believing it to be a tactic by the Southerners to spread slavery to the Southwest. To show his lack of support for the American government, he refused to pay his taxes. After spending a night in jail for his tax evasion, he became inspired to write “Civil Disobedience.” In this essay, he discusses the importance of detaching one’s self from the State and the power it holds over its people, by refraining from paying taxes and putting money into the government. The idea of allowing one’s self to be arrested in order to withhold one’s own values, rather than blindly following the mandates of the government, has inspired other civil rights activists throughout history such as Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Both these men fought against unjust laws, using non-violent, yet effective, methods of protest. From these three men, we can learn the significance of detaching ourselves from the social norm; and instead, fight for our values in a non-violent way, in order to make a change in our government’s corrupt and unjust laws.
Reed, Roy. “Rights Marchers Push Into Region Called Hostile.” New York Times. 23 Mar. 1965: 1+