...King Jr.: Letter from Birmingham Jail It is necessary for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to make the distinction between just and unjust laws to justify their actions of civil disobedience at the time. King describes to the clergymen that there are two types of laws; those that are just and those that are unjust. Dr. King begins by stating that he does not advocate the disobedience of just laws simply because “One has not only a legal but moral responsibility to obey just laws,” meaning that when a citizen knows that a law is in effect, they have to either follow it or face the punishments that come with breaking the law. Martin Luther King describes a just law as “a man-made code that squares with the moral law or the law of...
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...“an unjust law is no law at all…” From this we can begin to reflect on the distinction between justice and injustice and justice in laws. Martin Luther King Jr. establishes this distinction based on how a law affects an individuals personality or basic human rights. If they downgrade these things the law is considered unjust, but if they were to boost an individuals personality or soul, this law is considered just. Martin Luther King Jr.’s focus on racial injustice and what makes these laws unjust is supported by his argument that a majority of these laws are established by the “power majority group” (Letter from a Birmingham Jail) which in his case refers to the white clergymen instilling all these prejudice unjust laws. What makes laws like this unjust is that the group establishing them is not affected by these laws but only affects the minority group as well as downgrading their souls and personality. For example, to desegregate bathrooms and have African Americans and Whites share the bathroom would not affect the “power majority group”. Sharing bathrooms with another race has no change on either race’s experience for the short amount of time they will be using the same bathroom. Since, this law only degrades the personality of African Americans, it is unjust. MLK Jr. is enforcing the idea that people in power don’t willingly walk away from high power, even if there is injustice. Changing unjust laws to just laws threaten their power and slowly close the gap between the...
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...and untimely” In order to understand King’s concept of justice, let us examine the difference between just unjust laws, his disappointment in church, and the danger of “white moderate.” King’s concept of justice is his distinction between just and unjust laws. “Some people believed that an unjust law was not a law at all. King on the other hand felt different about this. “A just law was a man made code that squares with the law of God.” “An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law.” The moral code of conduct makes just and unjust laws King says. There are many different methods King uses to explain just and unjust laws. He says segregation to him is an unjust law....
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...We the Students Essay Contest In order to establish a free and just society, the people must be willing to reject unjust and immoral laws. This is because laws that violate the human rights of any individuals threaten everyone else as well. Civil disobedience is the violation of unjust laws and acceptance of the punishment that comes with breaking those laws. The punishment that comes with violating the law must be accepted in order to ensure that order is maintained and that so to draw a distinction between civil disobedience and lawlessness. Peaceful resistance to unjust laws is needed in order expose and call attention to laws that are unjust and therefore positively impacts society. The resistance must be peaceful or many may be unwilling...
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...stretched, and that is to be expected, as far as moral theories are concerned. In many cases, choosing right action can be simplified by referring to the events and outcomes in human history. Human affairs have long required moral thinking and to ensure stability within our societies, certain standards of morally-correct behavior have emerged. Mill outlines these common elements of justice beginning with the moral impositions of our societies, namely, laws. A law is a system of rules which protect certain personal liberties or property and are enforced through a set of institutions. A law is usually intended to protect a person's or peoples moral right, though the stipulations of a law may not always receive unanimous agreement. Mill finds justice in conformity to laws (and in turn to the protected peoples' right), yet also affirms the existence of unjust laws, or rights which a person or people are not rightly entitled to. In the case of an unjust law, every means should be exercised to obey the mandate of the law unless to do so would cause the violation of a person's right. Simultaneously, every effort should be made to enact...
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...regarding the true meaning of justice; Thrasymachus seems to take the view of a pessimist regarding the topic. Both Cephalus and Polemarchus are rather defeated in their arguments with Socrates and are unable to adequately provide Socrates with a satisfactory answer regarding what justice is. Thrasymachus enters the conversation and is seemingly annoyed or upset about the discourse between Socrates and Polemarchus. Moreover, Thrasymachus reverses the question to Socrates by demanding to know what his version of justice is. Thrasymachus seems to be frustrated with the audacity of Socrates of questioning everyone without providing and real answers himself. Thrasymachus then asserts his view of justice and in so doing, questions whether or not being a just person in a civilization is of any value whatsoever by the argument he presents against the “just” life. Thrasymachus has a view of justice that it is the advantage of the stronger. He is essentially asserting that different levels of government which rule or whatever entity is in power, are the makers of the law and consequently ensure the...
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...respect for the law, so much as for the right." This quote emphasizes that what one follows through obligations of the “law”, whether it is commitments to your city, family or divinity, it may not be what is righteous in regards to your own moral values. This theme of obligations vs. moral justice can be expressed in Sophocles’ Antigone, which can be seen through the main characters Antigone and Kreon, who have opposing views, but actions depict that if the law contradicts one’s moral duties, then one is justified to act in a manner of disobedience. The tragic Greek playwright Antigone is set in a more traditional era of time, where the city of Thebes is organized completely around religion and there are strict gender roles and expectations the citizens must abide by. Men are socially obliged to take care of the city, whilst women are to be taking care of the household, and more importantly are not to be seen wandering out in public. This distinction is important, as in all Greek plays, nothing is coincidence and the polarities between the gender roles plays a huge role in how the characters justify their actions. The play begins with Antigone and her sister Ismene sitting outside the palace the morning after the attack of the city of Thebes. The day prior, their brother Polyneices attacked their other brother Etyokles, and both committed acts of fratricide in pursuit of the title of King in the city of Thebes. Antigone is in distress as she has just heard news from...
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...writing the letter. o -Intended audience of the letter. o -Main points o -Significance of letter for Civil Rights movement. Martin Luther King was imprisoned because he participated in a nonviolent demonstration against segregation. He purposely chose to be a part of this demonstration to bring attention and publicity to the city of Birmingham, the heart of discrimination. He wrote the letter to respond to the criticisms of eight white religious leaders in the south. He seldom responds to criticism, but he felt a strong motive to explain to these leaders his cause for doing what he is doing. He gives descriptions of his ideal just and unjust laws and gives several examples of why they are unjust. He also calls out the white moderate, saying that their lack of doing nothing is just as worse as the white radicals. Also he talks about how freedom is never willingly given up by the oppressor, and that something must be done to bring justice to these problems. This letter gave many whites a chance to see the demonstrations from his point of view. It pointed out all the hypocrisy that the whites brought upon the African Americans. His wording of this letter is what really brings him message straight to the heart. It shows the injustice that he has come across, and also shows that he is willing to give everything to bring justice. 1. What single line or sentence provoked the strongest response from you? What ideas...
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...intentionally not informed of this right. Many critics of jury nullification claim that its excercise and application leads to a lawless society (Scheflin, Van Dyke, 1991: 424). California’s jury instructions state that the jury must perform their duty uninfluenced by pity or sentiment for a defendant or passion or prejudice against them, while Maryland’s jury instructions state that while the facts about what the law says are meant to be helpful they may disregard them as they see fit (Bonsignore, et al:428). The practice of jury nullification in the United States dates back to the colonial period of our nation. In 1735, John Peter Zenger was arrested by the British government and charged with printing inflammatory content against the government of New York. According to English law at the time, it was illegal to write or print dissenting literature against the Crown. Andrew Hamilton gave a compelling argument to the jury, and urged them to use their own eyes, ears and conscience in making a judgment. The jury of Zenger’s peers disregarded the law, and found him...
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...beast – and they are in this state if their work is the use of the body, and if this is the best that can come from them – are slaves by nature….For he is a slave by nature who is capable of belonging to another – which is also why he belongs to another – and who participates in reason only to the extent of perceiving it, but does not have it.” Slaves are tools but they are alive and they belong to their masters. But when he widens his explanations about slavery, he states that all slavery instituted by human convention is not compatible with justice by saying “the distinction between slave and free is one of convention only, and in nature there is no difference, so that this form of rule is based on force and is therefore not just.” Therefore, if someone is not naturally born as a slave, it is unjust to refer him as a slave in his opinion. This critic of Aristotle means that if the slavery is built up my laws or is enforced by some particular...
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...to nationalism to religious prejudices, the differences between human beings permeated society and twisted it with the hands of time. The most prominent example of such social diseases is segregation. The events that led up to the Civil Rights Movement of 1954-1968 were conducted by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. King, in his Letter from a Birmingham Jail, utilizes devices such as metaphorical language, diction, and antitheses to convey a sense of urgency, to toy with the emotions of his audience, and to break the chains of inequity. Metaphors throughout Martin Luther King Jr.’s letter urge the audience of the clergymen to act against the racial prejudices...
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...debate, especially recently because of a report in The New York Times on memos issued by the U.S. Justice Department in 2005 that authorized intelligence agencies to use interrogation methods defined as torture under international law (Whipps). Torture is actually addressed in eighth amendment of the United States Constitution. This amendment prohibits the federal government from imposing excessive bail, excessive fines, or cruel and unusual punishment. Although many people may believe that torturing prisoners should be accepted, I believe torturing prisoners is morally unjust and wrong. One of the main points someone who supports torturing enemy prisoners would make would be that it could have the prisoner reveal vital information that could potentially...
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...better to be just than unjust. Using the analogy of Ring of Gyges, Glaucon Socrates to explain why anyone should still desire justice even if there are no further ends to be pursued such as good reputation and honour. Socrates then offers a conception of justice which goes beyond the definitions offered by his previous interlocuters earlier on in the Republic. This essay will first aim to discuss in detail the challenge set forth by Glaucon followed by an analysis of Socrates' conception of justice with reference to his city-soul analogy. Glaucon claims, on behalf of the average Athenian, that justice is purely a social construction, valued by the masses in view of obtaining a good reputation for justice and virtue(358a). He claims that goods are of three kinds: (1)Goods valued only for what they are and not for their consequences, (2)goods valued for what they are and for their consequences, and (3) goods valued only for their consequences(357b-d). After the two agree on justice belonging to the goods of type-2, Glaucon proceeds to give an explanation of the majority's conception of justice by giving an account of its origins: Before any laws came to be...
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...process whereby a person is put to death by the state, as a means of punishment for having committed a capital crime. In this essay, I will discuss some of the main advantages and disadvantages of capital punishment and whether capital punishment is a morally and ethically viable approach to punishment. I hold a firmly retentionist position and believe that the most just and fitting punishment for one who has committed a capital offence would be the death penalty. I will support my position with statistics showing that capital punishment has successfully been used to deter people from committing capital crimes. As well, I will discuss various philosophies regarding the morals of execution and punishment in general. My goal in writing this paper is not to force abolitionist thinkers to change their position with regards to capital punishment, but rather to show abolitionist thinkers that there is another way to look at capital punishment. Two of the main principles that are used to support the retentionist philosophy are deterrence and retributivism. Deterrence is the theory that the death penalty is morally just because it will deter would-be murderers from committing capital crimes, which carry a sentence of execution. Retributivism is the idea that criminals should be punished because they deserve to be punished, a robber must return what he stole while a murderer deserves to be put to death for having killed someone. The concept of deterrence is based on a utilitarian theory...
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...THE TWO TREATISES OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT The introduction of the work was written latter and until this century gave people the impression that the book was written in 1688 to justify the Glorious Revolution. We now know that the Two Treatises of Civil Government were written during the Exclusion crisis and were probably intended to justify the general armed rising which the Country Party leaders were planning. It was a truly revolutionary work. Supposing that the Two Treatises may have been intended to explain and defend the revolutionary plot against Charles II and his brother, how does it do this? What do reflections on the state of nature and the state of war have to do with distinguishing between legitimate and illegitimate civil government? The First Treatise of Civil Government is a polemical work aimed at refuting the patriarchal version of the Divine Right of Kings doctrine put forth by Sir Robert Filmer. :Locke singles out Filmer's contention that men are not "naturally fre e" as the key issue, for that is the "ground" or premise on which Filmer erects his argument for the claim that all "legitimate" government is "absolute monarchy." -- kings being descended from the first man Adam. Early in the First Treatise Lo cke denies that either scripture or reason supports Filmer's premise or arguments. In what follows, Locke minutely examines key Biblical passages - so Locke's emphasis in the First Treatise is on refuting Filmer's scriptural claims for the divin e right...
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