As Malcolm X once stated “I’m for truth, no matter who tells it. I'm for justice, no matter who it's for or against.” Although Malcolm X was an extremely controversial human rights activist, his statement is the truth, even if he is the one who stated it. Because I agree with this sentiment, I affirm the resolution which states Resolved: Boo Radley should be charged with the murder of Bob Ewell.
In this resolution, the following words will be defined from Law.com Legal Dictionary. The resolution uses the word “charged.” Charged is defined as “in a criminal case, the specific statement of what crime the party is accused contained in the indictment or criminal complaint.” In other words, “charge” simply means to bring the incident to court and accuse the person of the crime, not to convict him of the accusation. In addition, the type of “murder” in this resolution is not specified. Thus, the definition of second-degree murder, which is what Boo Radley would be accused of, is defined as “a non-premeditated killing resulting from an assault in which death of the victim was a distinct possibility.”
Our value premise is consistency with the social contract and we validate this standard with the political thoughts of Thomas Hobbes. Hobbes is considered the founding father of modern political philosophy, so his justifications are sound. To summarize, the state of nature is violent. Thus, people join society out of self-interest to protect themselves and make a social contract with the government. This contract states that the people will follow the laws of the government as long as the government promises to protect them from each other. This value of consistency with the social contract relates to the resolution because this case involve...
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...illed your mother? What if you were told it was a suicide when you know that it wasn’t? If your mother had died, you would want to know the truth about the death. Thus, it is both logically and morally correct to allow the family to know of this information, and it is the government’s moral obligation to protect the rights of everyone, including the Ewell family.
In conclusion, we have proved that there is sufficient evidence to charge Boo Radley with the murder of Bob Ewell. With probable cause, it is the government’s responsibility to charge him. It is also the government’s moral responsibility to protect the rights of the Ewell family. We have proven that it is the legal and moral responsibility of the government to charge Boo Radley of the killing of Bob Ewell. The government must serve justice. After all, as Benjamin Disraeli stated “Justice is truth in action.”
Thomas Hobbes believes that the optimal form of authority is one that has absolute power over its people, consisting of just one person who will retain the exclusive ability to oversee and decide on all of society’s issues. This Sovereign will be constituted by a social contract with the people. With that, the Sovereign will hold all of the citizens’ rights, and will be permitted to act in whichever way he or she deems necessary. The philosopher comes to this conclusion with deductive reasoning, utilizing a scientific method with straightforward arguments to prove his point.
In the beginning of the novel, many falsehoods by the townspeople portray Boo Radley as a villain. These misleading opinions, very apparent in the adult community, are well illustrated by Miss Stephanie Crawford. She helps skew the children's impressions. Since Atticus, although often interrogated, does not want to create a breach of etiquette, he refuses to speak about the Radleys. Therefore, Jem receives most of his information from Miss Stephanie Crawford, a neighborhood scold, who insists she knows the whole truth about the Radleys. It is from Crawford that the children learn of Radley's scissor attack on his father and other such interesting rumors. Thus, Arthur Radley is labeled as a "hant", a possibly insane and dangerous man, and the "malevolent phantom” (Lee, pg. #). The latter comes from the fact that Radley had not been seen for many years, and was beli...
In his Leviathan, Thomas Hobbes outlined his views on law, the individual and the state. It is the first and foremost pieces on social contract theory. Hobbes explains the emergence of a sovereign, as “an embodiment of people’s individual and collective will to live in conditions of security, peace and some minimal prosperity” .
Therefore the subjects cannot create a sovereign who upholds their covenant- that is a ruler who decides all questions in the commonwealth and whose reign is absolute and permanent. And it does not follow that peace and harmony in civil society can be secured and guaranteed by the adoption of Hobbes's schema, that outlines the ascension from war to peace in the first place -- making Hobbes a Social Covenant Theorist.
In order to understand why Arthur” Boo” Radley is a mockingbird, it is important to know that he silently watches Jem and Scout. He resembles a mockingbird because of his natural desire to make the children happy by putting gifts in the tree, his compassion to help them when they stand outside in the cold watching Miss Maudie's house on fire.When Bob Ewell was killed the sheriff of the town is determined to report that Mr. Ewell fell on the
Boo is a secluded and shy man who never leaves his house. There are only rumors of Boo creeping out when it’s pitch dark outside. Besides those rumors, he is always kept locked up inside his house with “the shutters and doors closed” (9). It is not until one day, when Jem and Scout are walking along the road coming home from a Halloween event at school that Boo Radley comes out from his house. The children are walking silently home when they suddenly heard the shuffling of someone’s shoes. Not before long, Bob Ewell runs straight towards the children, knife in hand. While the children are being tackled, there is a “crunching” (262) sound of Jem’s arm, and he is left on the cold and damp ground. Scout is so entangled that it is hard for her to see. What she does manage to see is a man carrying Jem home. This man is Boo Radley. When Bob Ewell is fighting the children, Boo has to make a decision on whether or not he wants to reveal himself. In the end, Boo ends up fighting off Bob Ewell and saving the childrens’ lives. Even though Boo is always locked away from the rest of society and doesn’t want to be seen, he gets over his fear and fights for the children’s safety. He truly shows courage because he stands by what is right and leaves his house to save Atticus’s
Near the end of the book, Bob Ewell was trying to kill Jem and Scout because he wanted to get his revenge against Atticus. Mr. Tate, Atticus, and Scout had figured out Boo Radley was the one who was protecting the children and killed Bob Ewell. They figured it would not be right to bring Boo and his shy ways into a courtroom to plead not guilty. Especially since he did it out of good, protecting Jem and Scout, giving them life. At the end of chapter 30, Atticus tells Scout, “‘Scout. Mr. Ewell fell on his knife. Can you possibly understand?’ . . . . ‘Yes sir, I understand. Mr. Tate was right.’ Atticus disengaged himself and looked at me. ‘What do you mean?’ ‘Well, it’d be sort of like shootin’ a mockingbird, wouldn’t it?’” (Lee 370). This quote represents how everyone felt it would be immoral to punish Boo for protecting the children and what is left of their innocence from the evils of the world. It is like saying, these children do not need their innocence anymore, which is untrue because that is what needs to be defended the most. Boo did nothing but a great service to Atticus and Maycomb County, so punishing him would be like destroying the shield of these children. In conclusion, it is sinful to harm those who only
I understand a theory of political legitimacy to give an account of the justice of political arrangements. (3) I understand a theory of political obligation to give an account of why and under what conditions, citizens are morally required to obey the rules constituting those arrangements. The social contract tradition offers us hypothetical consent theories of both political obligation and political legitimacy, frequently neglecting to distinguish the two ideas. Likewise, the common objection to hypothetical consent theories — that hypothetical contracts do not bind — ...
In 1915, an unjust tragedy occurred. Leo M. Frank was lynched because he was thought to be guilty for the murder of 14-year-old Mary Phagan. However, was he actually guilty of the crime he was convicted for? More or less, Leo Frank was a victim of press influencing public opinion, the need for Hugh Dorsey (the prosecutor) to have a successful case, and racial prejudice of the time. Contrary to public opinion, Leo Frank was not guilty for murdering Mary Phagan.
Thomas Hobbes is frequently credited as being a forefather to modern liberalism. With his beliefs on individualism, along with his agreeance and acceptance of intellectual and moral autonomy it is easy to understand why many modern liberals would agree with Hobbes’s political philosophy. However, Thomas Hobbes does not support the concept of a democratic government, rather he supported the notion of a absolutist government up until his death. Special attention must be given to Hobbes’s denial that autonomy can be thought of, or conceived as, a form of self-government. It is important to take note that Hobbes’s argument against democracy is significantly more exhaustive than merely autonomy. Hobbes believes that democracy cannot work as a form of government due to numerous reasons, three of which will be the focus of this paper. Initially, we will lay a foundation to demonstrate how democracy is not equal to other forms of government, rather it acts more like a launch point for other, more preferable, types of government regimes. Secondly, we will demonstration that democracy reproduces the instability and despair that is accustom with, and found in, the state of nature, which is contradictory to the entire idea of a sovereign. And finally we will establish that while Hobbes consents to and also protects intellectual and moral autonomy, the notion of autonomy, in its political form, as self-government (which may be taken to imply democracy), cannot work because of its contradictory nature. This is a result of the notion, that government, for Hobbes, is responsible for the creation and subsequent enforcement of the laws. Hence, these reasons put forth by Hobbes, in addition to the arguments that will be made against ...
Think you know Boo Radley? Not many people do. Boo Radley is a shy, mysterious character from Harper Lee’s: To Kill a Mockingbird. Throughout the book, Boo is thought of as a monster within the book’s setting of Maycomb County. He’s also known to be mentally ill and violent due to many stories about his past. However, I believe he’s just misunderstood. Boo Radley is actually a caring and courageous human being. Examples that benefit this idea include: Boo Radley giving gifts to Scout and Jem and saving Scout and Jem from Bob Ewell. Furthermore, throughout To Kill a Mockingbird; Boo Radley is shown to be misunderstood, caring, and courageous.
Thomas Hobbes’ legal theory is based on “Social contract”. According to Hobbes, prior to social contract, “man” lived in the State of Nature. “Man’s” life in the State of Nature was one of fear and selfishness. “Man” lived in chaotic condition of constant fear. Life in the State of Nature was “solitary”, “poor”, “nasty”, “brutish”, and “short”. “Man” has a natural desire for security and order. In order to secure self-protection and self-preservation, and to avoid misery and pain, “man” entered into a contract. This idea of self-preservation and self-protection are inherent in “man’s” nature and in order to achieve this, voluntarily surrendered all their rights and freedoms by this contract to some authority who must command obedience. As a result of this contract, the mightiest authority is to protect and preserve their lives and property. This led to the emergence of the institution of the “ruler” or “monarch”, who shall be the absolute
Atticus has a hard time choosing whether to tell the town that Bob Ewell died of an accident, or whether his son or Boo Radley killed Bob Ewell. Atticus is a famous lawyer in Maycomb and he believes in legal justice. Atticus learns what had really happened from Scout?s explanation of what she had seen, and heard when Bob Ewell attacked them while walking back from the school play. He understood that Bob Radley killed Bob Ewell in order to save Jem?s life. Atticus does not want to send Boo to court for the fact that Boo saved his children?s life.
In its political philosophy utilitarianism provides an alternative to theories of natural law and the social contract by basing the authority of government and the sanctity of individual rights upon their utility, or measure of happiness gained. As an egalitarian doctrine, where everyone’s happiness counts equally, the rational, relatively straightforward nature of utilitarianism offers an attractive model for democratic government. It offers practical methods for deciding the morally right course of action - “...an action is right as it tends to promote happiness, wrong as it tends to diminish it, for the party whose interests are in question” (Bentham, 1780). To discover what we should do in a given situation, we identify the various courses of action that we could take, then determine any foreseeable benefits and harms to all affected by the ramifications of our decision. In fact, some of the early pioneers of utilitarianism, such as Bentham and Mill, campaigned for equality in terms of women's suffrage, decriminalization of homosexuality, and abolition of slavery (Boralevi, 1984). Utilitarianism seems to support democracy as one could interpret governments working to promote the public interest and welfare of citizens as striving for liberty for the greatest amount of people. While utilitarianism at its heart is a theory that calls for progressive social change through peaceful political processes, there are some difficulties in relying on it as the sole method for moral decision-making. In this essay I will assess the effectiveness of utilitarianism as a philosophy of government by examining the arguments against it.
citizen holds the right of self-preservation as the fundamental value of their society; and Hobbes is