... , Jr. believed civil disobedience, when enacted for the correct reasons, was a useful tool to fight unjust laws. Dr. King also believed that any law that uplifts human personality was just and any law that degrades human personality was unjust. He used this argument to explain why segregation was an unjust law. He states that segregation damages the soul of that one segregated against, thus making it ... an unjust law. Although Hobbes stated that all people are roughly equal, still, if someone has more, others ... live in a safe society. He believed people had the social obligation to ob...

• Word Count: 794
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... bulk of the community + cannot habitually obey anyone else. So, if a sovereign gives a general rule backed by a sanction it is called a law, the positivist law. Eg, Kinf-in-parliament is the sovereign as per Austin. In America, sovereignty resides in the people, not the president or the congress. They exercise ... every law, but is there to elaborate on "reason". Natural law creates a rational basis for determination of positive law and also a criteria for individuals to decide whether to obey the positive law or not. Laws may be unjust also. But, he says that the circumstance may deman...

• Word Count: 7680
• Approx Pages: 31
• Grade Level: High School

... classified as moral or immoral. Some of it non moral ,or social, having to do with manners or etiquette, which is essentially a matter of taste rather than right or wrong. Law: Natural moral laws prescribe how human beings in nature should/ought to behave or not to behave. E.g.: Homosexuality- unnatural' or against the laws of nature'. The man made ... law-provides a series of public statements-a legal code, or system of dos and don'ts to guide humans in their behavior and to protect them from doing harm to persons and ... properties. But what id moral is not necessarily, legal and vic...

• Word Count: 428
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... society that has institutions that prevents one from being taken seriously on the basis of their membership in a group (i.e. as a black person, as a woman...) is an unjust society to that extent. - Porn causes women to be taken less seriously: hence, porn silences women. - Points out that the courts agree that porn can/does cause ... Gommorah', with little or no character, left to make democracy what it need be: an institution full of people with respect for one another and for the law and for decency. - Tries to argue (I think this is ridiculous, personally) that he is against governmen...

• Word Count: 6291
• Approx Pages: 25
• Grade Level: High School

... Luther King's "Letter from Birmingham Jail" Martin Luther King's "Letter from Birmingham Jail" strives to rationalize the desperate need for nonviolent direct action, the absolute immorality of unjust laws together with what a just law is, as well as, the increasing probability of the "Negro" resorting to extreme disorder and bloodshed, in addition to his utter disappointment with the Church who, in his ... inform the community about the issue is actually showing great respect for the law. King answers to the clergymen's assertion that breaking the law is not the way to achieve the resu...

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... what he saw as an "unjust" as well as what he felt a "just" law was. The most important point that both men made regarding law was that "just" laws should definitely be obeyed, where "unjust" laws must be disobeyed. They felt it was every person's moral obligation, whether they were the minority or not, to stand up to the "unjust" law and take action themselves. Justice ... , over human history, has had an infinite number of definitions. Both King and Thoreau had very similar views on what justice is. They break justice into two categories, "unjust" and "just" laws. Justice, they feel, i...

• Word Count: 1210
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... Decision in U.S. history, it stated unjustly that African American slaves were considered property of their white owners. While today we know this to be unjust, but according to premise two, because of its validity as an approved law, the Dread Scott Decision would tell people how to act justly, and how to maintain peace and order within the city. This is just ... in the second argument that is similar to the second premise is the eighth premise that states that breaking the law is choosing to do evil over bad. Again using the Dread Scott Decision as an example, were the African America...

• Word Count: 1557
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

... a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that "an unjust law is no law at all."" His argument states clearly that laws are a black and white matter. There is no such thing as a neutral law; laws can only affect a country in either positive or negative ways. He states that not ... from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection." Apathy and half-hearted support in all social cases is just as harmful as creating an unjust law becaus...

• Word Count: 1102
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... must know there are two types of laws, just and unjust. While obeying just laws is agreeable, obeying unjust laws is immoral. King encourages this point using St. Augustine's statement "an unjust law is no law at all." King explains that "a just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law or law of God," and an unjust law is "a code that is out of harmony with the ... moral law." In all, any law that strengthen human personality is just, and ... any law that degrades it is unjust. King feels one who breaks an unjust law must do so openly ... ...

• Word Count: 830
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... decisions. The question is, on what standard do we base our decisions? Nearly every society will have two different internal law codes, that of what is "just" and what is "unjust." We often solve a moral dilemma by considering the consequences, pondering either the demands of those in authority or our ... of these two factor dominate one another, the preferred factor is given a force that leads individuals to either take part in or to resist an unjust action. Authority is more than just a powerful source that gives out order; it consists of creating pressure and a reward-punishment system...

• Word Count: 1755
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... , a very popular non-conformist showed a heightened sense of morality threw the civil rights and segregation era. King was determined to end racial segregation and obtain equality for all. Despite the law and authority during civil rights movement, King remained true to his moral values. In "A Letter from Birmingham Jail" King writes, "I have been arrested on a charge of parading ... without a permitsuch an ordinance becomes unjust when it is used to maintain segregation and to deny citizens the First-Amendment privilege of peaceful assembly and protest." King organized a protest despite...

• Word Count: 511
• Approx Pages: 2
• Has Bibliography

... highlights the issue of segregation and seems to imply the philosophical views of the two men with regard to positive verses natural law, a subject's duty to obey the law, how law should or should not be used to promote the common good, the harm to others principle, and the roles paternalism, autonomy ... guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness"" (SullenToys, 2011). Martin Luther King implied that he felt that law had not been used to promote the common good of all men equally and that due to the heavier burden carried by the Negro without the .....

• Word Count: 2706
• Approx Pages: 11
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... it is worth it to strive anyways. These people are brave and/or naive enough to attempt to concur despair. The world is such an unjust and despairing place, if no such group is created, everyone will be too discouraged to take real action. There are limitations of religion in society ... to create selfless patriotism is an attachment, or love for country that is so intense, that it is difficult to see its' community as being unjust. Citizens can have willful self-delusion that their state is doing good things. Ultimately, it is in every states interest to act fairly to other ... unfair ...

• Word Count: 2230
• Approx Pages: 9
• Has Bibliography

... if there were a society that had a deficiency of all things necessary. According to Thrasymachus" idea on justice the stronger or ruling class should be the beneficiary of justice. So say a law is passed that the ruling class be given an excess of the things they need. This would leave little or none for the lesser people so the justice is not ... the laws from the society lacking necessities. The laws there are instated for the good of the stronger. Morally the only way it would be okay to act unjust would be if the unjust act were to benefit the stronger more than remaining just. (Pla...

• Word Count: 477
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... justifying the breaking of some laws. Martian Luther felt there were two types of laws, the just and the unjust. A just law is a man-made code that agrees with morality or God's law and uplifts human personality, an unjust law is out of harmony with moral law and degrades human personality. Segregation is morally wrong and sinful yet legal, just as what Hitler did in Germany ... ...

• Word Count: 257
• Approx Pages: 1
• Grade Level: High School

... people can understand the despair they feel and their unavoidable patience." King alludes to St. Augustine by agreeing that "an unjust law is no law at all". He uses an appeal to logic by saying that " a just law is one that squares with moral law". King urges men to obey the 1954 decision of the Supreme Court because it is morally right and disobey segregation ... ordinances because they are morally wrong. King makes allusions to philosophers such as St. Thomas Aquinas, Martin Buber, and Paul Tillich, while explaining the difference between just and unjust laws. King has ... ...

• Word Count: 987
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... argument, The Apology and The Crito. Issues that I will base my argument on are the important questions of Truth, Justice, Death and State Law. In The Apology, Socrates sets about on a course to instil his moral mission. He seems much less concerned with the offering of an impressive ... unjust or just. He proclaims in "no circumstance must one do wrong one must not even do wrong when one is wronged". (48c) Another idealistic stance when viewed through the harsh realities if our times. If everyone adopted this particular Socratic line, society would doubtless have little to worry it. For...

• Word Count: 1394
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

... Thus all the construction for any extralinguistic reference is inevitably a fiction (fiction means creation). History is no more discernable patterns of human actions but a fiction of the historian. The law becomes jumble of words with indeterminate meanings (Anderson 1990:92). Sociologist Michel Foucault emphasizes that societies define "madness- to discriminate against and marginalize those minority social scapegoats arbitrarily (1977: 131 ... write a/theologies (neither theologies nor nontheologies but something from the interstice of the two) (Taylor 1984); Some adopt the total parado...

• Word Count: 5543
• Approx Pages: 22
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... power. It is important that we examine the Sophistic movement, a time when the ability to publicly give persuasive speeches to a large audience, be it in law courts or in the assembly, was the golden road to success in public life, which was considered the greatest achievable form of success possible in life. Regular ... rhetoric can be used and abused" (Wedgwood 4). This is why Gorgias promises that he will teach his students about what is just and unjust. However, the only problem with this is the fact that not all would agree with Gorgias's standard of morality, which could be conside...

• Word Count: 2063
• Approx Pages: 8
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... Aristotle argues that man is political by nature due to speech. Through speech, men develop a common moral determination for what is just and unjust, and naturally form political societies in the acquisition of virtue. Although Aristotle's government operates in the pursuit of human excellence, it is based on ... that he is political. He describes speech as, "a characteristic of man that he alone has any sense of good and evil, of just and unjust, and the like, and the association of living beings who have this sense makes a family and a state" (Politics Book I.ii). He ... the founding ...

• Word Count: 1841
• Approx Pages: 7
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... co-operation and voluntary trade. Furthermore, if there is any action that violates the consent of any man ( by force or fraud ), it is immoral and should be punishable by law. The physical force can be applied in situations when one is protecting or defending one's life, liberty or property. Man's rights of life, liberty ( including the liberty to justly acquire ... justified as necessary and indispensable when the protection of individual rights is concerned. The rights of individuals can be protected by the police, law courts, and the national defence forces. Other actions led by the...

• Word Count: 2526
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... but always as a means to an end. He also believes that there can be no exceptions to moral rules. This comes from the theory of the universal law, which says that an action is only moral if the reason for performing it could be a reason everyone could have (ICE). Kant's moral theory and ... in different ways. Kant says that an act is considered moral if it's done for the sake of duty and if it can be a universal law. If one completes an action based on their duty to perform, they do the right thing because it is what they feel they ought to do ... action which benefits the individual b...

• Word Count: 911
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... the likelihood of authority of legal norms increases as the similarity between the cultural and behavioral aspects of authorities' increases (Turk, 1969). Law enforcement as a whole comes to an understanding about legal norms when their cultural and behavioral aspects are also on the same page. The ... the individuals (Sutherland, 1939). The way individuals communicate and associate themselves with other individuals can determine whether he or she becomes a criminal or a law abiding citizen. Again the individual's social environment becomes a factor because in a disruptive area an indivi...

• Word Count: 5291
• Approx Pages: 21
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... law should only be used to ensure that citizens are protected from the harms others would inflict upon them. Self inflicted harms and moral wrongs that do not harm any individuals should not be matters that the law should deal with. Whereas Patrick Devlin believes that using the law to enforce morality is not unjust ... . Both parties display opposite opinions of the law, and how the law should administer our lives. When taking into consideration an issue ... synopsis as to why prostitution should be legalized. Devlin was a legal moralist, he believed in a strong moral code, and he insist...

• Word Count: 2810
• Approx Pages: 11
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... does not try to take over the function of any other class. The Declaration of Independence and the Bill of rights, which guaranteed each one the equal freedom before the law, gave us the rights of life, liberty and the pursuit if happiness, its the fundamental principles of our political system. We go by the laws that the government sets and ... . We must keep in mind and conform to the laws of nature before trying to define what is just. For example, someone who believes that working to buy food is unjust and so does not work, then he will starve. He did not conform to the highest form ...

• Word Count: 958
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School