...Throughout “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”, King makes a similar statement about civil disobedience and the law. He states that civil disobedience must occur after four steps are taken. Collection of facts to determine whether there are injustices, negotiation, self purification, and direct action must occur before civil disobedience transpires. He argues that “there is nothing wrong in having an ordinance which requires a permit for a parade. But such an ordinance becomes an injustice when it is used to maintain segregation” (5). Ultimately, a law becomes unjust when it promotes injustice. This is when civil disobedience can occur as laws that promote segregation and inequality are unjust. King appeals to a higher law whenever a command of the state conflicts with his moral principles. Natural law can be described as King’s guide to civil disobedience. When the state does not conform with natural law, civil...
Words: 1609 - Pages: 7
...He did so prior to his position in office by peaceful, some not peaceful, protests. These protests are an example of civil disobedience. “Civil disobedience is the active, professed refusal to obey certain laws, demands, and commands of a government, or of an occupying international power. Civil disobedience is a symbolic or ritualistic violation of the law, rather than a rejection of the system as a whole.” - Henry David Thoreau. One of the oldest examples of civil disobedience is the Ancient Greek play Antigone by Sophocles. Nelson Mandela used many different...
Words: 760 - Pages: 4
...Civil disobedience allows one to convey their thoughts and ideas in a passive, nonviolent way. It can be used when one believes that they are morally correct and know that there are others that will agree with them. Antigone, from Sophocles Antigone, and Martin Luther King Jr. in his letter, Letter from Birmingham Jail, both chose to fight for justice rather than preserve their own safety. They both violated laws that they believed were unjust in order to help people and were willing to suffer the consequences that their actions brought upon them. In other words, they believed that there was a higher good that required them to disobey specific laws. However, even though they both had the same intentions, the methods that they used to achieve their goals differed...
Words: 1069 - Pages: 5
...ANTIGONE Antigone is a tragedy by Sophocles written in or before 441 BC. Chronologically, it is the third of the three Theban plays but was written first. The play expands on the Theban legend that predated it and picks up where Aeschylus' Seven Against Thebes ends. This play is based on the life story of Antigone, the daughter of Oeudipe and Jocaste. It is a legend of her sacrifice for her loved ones, her believes and her honour. Antigone’s brother Polynice had betrayed his country and died during the war. Creon, the king of Thebes had refused to give him a burial. Antigone is outraged by this decision and goes as far as sacrificing her life, to give her brother a burial he deserves. Even law of the king does not stop her from doing what she thinks is right. Antigone is the tragic heroine of the play and this play revolves around her struggle against the autocratic laws of the state. Even she manages to give Polynice a rightful burial but, this burial costs Antigone her life. SYNOPSIS In the beginning of the play, two brothers leading opposite sides in Thebes' civil war died fighting each other for the throne. Creon, the new ruler of Thebes, has decided that Eteocles will be honored and Polyneices will be in public shame. The rebel brother's body will not be sanctified by holy rites, and will lie unburied on the battlefield, prey for carrion animals like worms and vultures, the harshest punishment at the time. Antigone and Ismene are the sisters of the dead Polyneices...
Words: 2726 - Pages: 11
...believe in and what they should be imposed by. Civil disobedience plays major role in the novels by Antigone, Creon, and Socrates. In the novel “Antigone” and “The Apology of Socrates” Socrates and Antigone believe if the law is immoral or unrighteous they must protect themselves against discrimination. In the story by “Antigone” she refuses to obey a law because she believed this law was immoral. The law she refuses to obey was the law of tyranny. Antigone second brother was not to have a burial when he died because of his dishonor to the state. Antigone brothers Eteocles and Polynices wanted to take the throne. They both would take the throne one year after the next but Eteocles, the elder, refused to step down. Polynices and his army marched down to the state of Thebes to battle his own brother for the throne, the brothers killed each other in a duel which made Creon king. When Creon became king he ordered Eteocles buried in honor and left Polynices to rot. Creon believed that Polynices should not have disobeyed the law of his own state, which was disloyalty. When Antigone heard about the news of her brother Polynices she was enraged. According to the novel “Antigone” when she was speaking to her sister, Antigone says “For those two brothers of ours, in burial has not Creon honored the one, dishonored the other?” (Ant 161.23-24). Antigone questions herself because she is surprised that a person cannot have a burial. Also Antigone believed that Creon abused his authority by...
Words: 1083 - Pages: 5
...In Sophocles’ play Antigone; Creon and Antigone have different thoughts towards the burial of Polyneices. Throughout the play you notice that Creon leans towards the “law of man” while Antigone leans towards the “law of the gods.” Creon is the new head of state and lawmaker in Thebes; he believes that everyone should obey to man-made laws, “law of man.” Creon’s laws simply are standard (have no emotion), they protect the culture, and provide stability to the culture. Antigone obeys a different set of laws called "law of the gods." Law of the gods has standards for right and wrong. They are also more universal, not just people of Thebes apply to them; all people of the gods do. Antigone believes that the law of the gods tells people to give...
Words: 517 - Pages: 3
...- 2 – The LD File Civil Disobedience Index Topic Overview 3-7 Definitions 8-10 Affirmative Cases 11-19 Negative Cases 20-25 Affirmative Extensions 26-34 Civil disobedience worked to free India. 26 Civil disobedience overthrew the communists in Poland. 26 The tradition of civil disobedience in America goes all the way back to the founders. 26 Civil disobedience can serve to prevent situations from escalating into violence. 27 Civil Disobedience has been used to promote peace. 27 Civil disobedience was used to promote racial equality. 27 Civil disobedience is used to try to prevent the destruction of the environment. 27 Civil disobedience is effective at changing the law. 28 Legal channels can take too long. 28 Consent to obey just laws does not imply consent to obey unjust ones. 28 Distinguishing between just and unjust laws to disobey can be universalized. 28 Civil disobedience can be stabilizing to a community by spreading a shared sense of justice. 29 Sometimes it is only the unjustified response to civil disobedience that has harmful consequence. 29 Civil disobedience is traditionally non-violent. 29 Civil disobedience is a form of exercising free speech- which is essential in a democracy. 30 Civil disobedience has been used to fight slave laws 30 Civil disobedience played a role in ending the Vietnam war. 30 Civil disobedience shouldn’t be punished-...
Words: 18413 - Pages: 74
...Law and the Humanities Online Dr. Hugo Walter Spring 2014 Email: HGW@BerkeleyCollege.edu HUM360 Online 4 Credit Hours Office Hours: Online every day, seven days a week (Sunday through Saturday). Please always feel free to email me with any questions. I will also designate an hour each week when I will be available on Blackboard IM to answer your questions. COURSE DESCRIPTION This course examines the treatment of legal themes in literature, music, film and other visual arts as part of a broader consideration of the relationship between the humanities and the law. Students will explore the ways that the humanities utilize different perspectives and aesthetic styles in the discussion of such legal themes as morality, justice, equality and authority. COURSE GOALS At the conclusion of the course, students will be able to: Articulate the contribution made by law and the humanities as a field of study. Articulate the ways that imaginative portrayals of law often convey concerns about the process and practice of law with greater persuasive force than factual texts. Identify recurring themes that are investigated in law and the humanities, such as the difference between legal and moral codes, the role of custom in establishing legal norms, the role of punishment, the imperfect functioning of the legal process, unfairness in the criminal justice system, bias against minorities and the poor. Understand the...
Words: 3295 - Pages: 14
...Political Obligation First published Tue Apr 17, 2007; substantive revision Fri Apr 30, 2010 To have a political obligation is to have a moral duty to obey the laws of one's country or state. On that point there is almost complete agreement among political philosophers. But how does one acquire such an obligation, and how many people have really done what is necessary to acquire it? Or is political obligation more a matter of being than of doing — that is, of simply being a member of the country or state in question? To those questions many answers have been given, and none now commands widespread assent. Indeed, a number of contemporary political philosophers deny that a satisfactory theory of political obligation either has been or can be devised. Others, however, continue to believe that there is a solution to what is commonly called “the problem of political obligation,” and they are presently engaged in lively debate not only with the skeptics but also with one another on the question of which theory, if any, provides the solution to the problem. Whether political obligation is the central or fundamental problem of political philosophy, as some have maintained (e.g., McPherson), may well be doubted. There is no doubt, however, that the history of political thought is replete with attempts to provide a satisfactory account of political obligation, from the time of Socrates to the present. These attempts have become increasingly sophisticated in recent years, but they have...
Words: 12818 - Pages: 52
...POLITICS, THEOLOGY AND HISTORY RAYMOND PLANT CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS Politics, Theology and History is a major new book by a prominent academic and an active politician. It ranges widely across the disciplines of theology, political theory and philosophy and poses acute questions about the basic moral foundations of liberal societies. Lord Plant focuses on the role that religious belief can and ought to play in argument about public policy in a pluralistic society. He examines the potential political implications of Christian belief and the ways in which it may be deployed in political debate. The book is a contribution to the modern debate about the moral pluralism of western liberal societies, discussing the place of religious belief in the formation of policy and asking what sorts of issues in modern society might be the legitimate objects of a Christian social and political concern. Raymond Plant has written an important study of the relationship between religion and politics which will be of value to students, academics, politicians, church professionals, policy makers and all concerned with the moral fabric of contemporary life. r ay m on d pl an t is Professor of European Political Thought at the University of Southampton and a Member of the House of Lords. He was a Home affairs spokesperson for the Labour Party from 1992 to 1996, and Master of St Catherine's College, Oxford, from 1994 to 2000. Lord Plant's main publications are Social and Moral Theory in Casework...
Words: 144283 - Pages: 578
...NATIONAL HISTORICAL COMMISSION Manila 1974 First Printing 1963 Second Printing 1965 Third Printing 1969 Fourth Printing 1971 Fifth Printing 1974 This Book is dedicated by the Author to the other Filipinos Speak of me as I am; nothing extenuate, Nor set down aught in malice, Shakespeare: °the/Lo. Paint my picture truly like me, and not flatter me at all ; but remark all those roughnesses, pimples, warts, and everything as you see me. — Oliver Cromwell. Report me and my cause aright. The rest is silence. Shakespeare : OTHELLO PREFACE Like most Filipinos I was told about Rizal as a child, and to me, like to most, he remained only a name. In school I learned only that he had died for our country, shot by the Spaniards. I read his two novels in...
Words: 203166 - Pages: 813
... or parts thereof, may be reproduced in print form solely for classroom use with A First Look At Communication Theory provided such reproductions bear copyright notice, but may not be reproduced in any other form or for any other purpose without the prior written consent of The McGrawHill Companies, Inc., including, but not limited to, in any network or other electronic storage or transmission, or broadcast for distance learning. PREFACE Rationale We agreed to produce the instructor’s manual for the sixth edition of A First Look at Communication Theory because it’s a first-rate book and because we enjoy talking and writing about pedagogy. Yet when we recall the discussions we’ve had with colleagues about instructor’s manuals over the years, two unnerving comments stick with us: “I don’t find them much help”; and (even worse) “I never look at them.” And, if the truth be told, we were often the people making such points! With these statements in mind, we have done some serious soul-searching about the texts that so many teachers—ourselves included—frequently malign or ignore. As we have considered our quandary, we have come face-to-face with the central paradox that characterizes the genre: Teaching manuals tend to be distant, mechanical, impersonal, and lifeless, when in fact good teaching is immediate, flexible, personal, and lively. In this manual, therefore, we have attempted to communicate to fellow teachers...
Words: 159106 - Pages: 637
