... and Malcolm X's Positions on Law After reading Plato's Crito, Martin Luther King's "Letter from Birmingham Jail", and Malcolm X's "The Bullet or the Ballot", it is clear that all three of these men were attracted to the natural conception of a law, which holds that an unjust law is not really a law. However, it is also ... clear that Socrates had a contrasting different view on a citizen's obligation to obey the law. The Crito is a dialogue, written by Plato, that takes place in ... just, must be obeyed. Dr. Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, on the other hand, define laws in two differen...

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... execution and is caught in between a moral dilemma. He has the choice of betraying the law and the state or betraying himself and what he stands for. Socrates in his old age has been subjected to the Law of Athens. He knows for a fact that the law is unjust in its doing; but, his main quarrel against Crito is that he cannot just escape ... and disobey the law. "What do you mean by trying to escape, but to destroy us, the laws are the ... in jail, he wrote the famous letter, The Letter From Birmingham Jail. This is a concrete example of something that the Socratic-Platonic view would ap...

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• Grade Level: High School

... Hobbes is famously quoted for saying, "Life is lonely, poor, nasty, brutish and short." He is right. Without a contracted, written understanding of law and its consequences, there is no reason for people to follow rules or be civil. Hobbes contends that humans are out for their own self-interests. ... must be appointed. The sovereign is that person who makes the laws. The sovereign is that person who decides right from wrong, and just from unjust. In the state of nature, people don't have ideas of justice and injustice because laws define justice and injustice. This state of nature is h...

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... 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...

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... society, and many believe that it is the code under which we should live by. However, while many hold this view, few still side with the unjust law, one that is a numerical code or power majority group compels and minority group to obey but does not make it binding on itself. During the time ... , having two types of laws which govern us creates chaos, anger and resentment is our society. It is important to emphasize the differences between a just and unjust law because it calls attention to the fact that even today; we segregate our communities and our culture. For example, although no w...

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... was going to be elected, all had the same intention of keeping segregation among blacks. King also spoke on the differences between just and unjust laws. An unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law. Any law that uplifts human personality is just. What is right and what is wrong. The policy of the philosophy class of 2101 follows with ... squares with the moral law of 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 Saint Thomas Aquinas, an unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eterna...

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... are justified by every person's implicit agreement to them. This does not mean that every law the state makes must be upheld, there is still allowed room for just and unjust law, as everyone recognizes that the state sometimes oversteps its bounds. However, it is the responsibility ... particular arguments by Sharon Post and A.D. Woozley. The first being that Socrates was not obligated to uphold the agreement because the agreement itself was unjust, and therefore impious. The second, that Socrates himself had directly contradicted earlier statements he had made in the Apology. The first ...

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... believed that by appealing to the verdict or by running away he would be wronging the city [50A]. He should have instead fought against the unjust verdict, and prove to the city that it was not right to sentence someone to death for philosophizing. He didn't want to appeal or runaway ... that he was right. It has been proven in the United States that one can fight against an unjust ruling or an unjust law; like the Black Civil Rights Movement, and Women's Rights. By allowing the unjust ruling to go through, Socrates allowed the city to be able to wrong another person when the situation ...

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... just laws. However, he also believes that people have a moral obligation to disobey unjust laws. With this, he quotes St. Augustine with, "An unjust law is no law at all." King goes on to explain that a just law is a law that uplifts human personality and it squares with moral law. In addition, an unjust law is a law that degrades human personality and is a code that is out of harmony with ... the moral law. An easier way to view this is that a just law is a law that a group who enacts it ... will not mind following itself. On the contrary, an unjust law is a law that the group that en...

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Socrates Vs King In the two reading assignments that were assigned each of the characters argue whether breaking the law is just or unjust. The characters namely being, Socrates and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., both have different outlooks on the authorities, and the laws in which they must abide by. Both stories are ... and Socrates have completely different outlooks on weather it's right to intentionally break the law. I think that the argument between Dr. King and Socrates is very apparent that they disagree on weather a person should intentionally break the law. Socrates being a firm bel...

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... 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...

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... 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 ... ...

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... outlawing of segregation in public schools. He however does go on to state that he believes that there are two types of laws: just and unjust. He believes it is very obvious to distinguish the difference in a just and unjust law. Dr. King uses numerous ways to develop a pretty distinguishable line between the two types of laws. He first states that " Any ... law that uplifts human personality is just and any law that degrades human personality is unjust."" He emphasizes that all segregation laws are unjust because segregation distorts the soul and damages personality. He ... also belie...

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... should remain in prison and accept his death sentence. My main focus will be on Socrates primary argument, which is solely based on the premise that doing unjust actions harm's one's soul, and life is not living with a ruined soul. From that statement, I however, believe Socrates should escape Prison for ... states that we have an obligation, for the good of our soul; to obey unjust laws and to accept unfair punishment for laws we haven't broken. How is it so honorable to be put to death for a law you haven't violated? What does the individual owe society? Plato's answer seems to ... b...

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... David Thoreau would completely agree with Socrates" above quotation. Thoreau argues that government should be based on conscience and that citizens should cease associating with an unjust government. Thoreau writes: "How does it become a man to behave toward the American government today? I answer, that he cannot without disgrace be ... be men first, and subjects afterward." According to Thoreau, if people followed their conscience instead of the law, they would do the just thing. If people obeyed all laws, they would tend to do unjust things. In Thoreau's mind, the American people would ...

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... that, he thought there were creative injustice laws. He states in Letter from Birmingham Jail that: "There are just and unjust laws, a unjust law is a code that a majority inflicts on a minority that is not binding on itself. This is difference made legal, but a just law is a code that a majority compels on a minority to follow that is willingto follow itself. This is sameness made legal ... ."(Pg. 113) Dr. King goes on give more examples of just and unjust laws. When he states that "unjust is a code inflicted upon ... minority had no part in enacting or creating because they did not ha...

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... If one person helps another and the first person is benefitted from that help as well as the second one, is that also classified as unjust? Another situation that is questionable is when there are connections invovled between different parties; when two parties' affairs are interconnected, say an agricultor and ... a merchant of agricultural goods, they are forced to "meddle" in each other's businesses. Yet this doesn't signify injustice; why would it be unjust to get involved in the affairs that affect one, directly or indirectly? If an agricultor who grows potatoes decided to raise th...

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• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... people inside the nation. Ethically, one could hold their morals at the standard of the law. However, the law is not (or was not) justly represented making it "ethically" rational to disobey laws that were considered unjust. In contempt of all the inhumane treatment towards African Americans, Dr. King would never seek ... though he knows in his soul that they aren't right. If he were to break the laws, or act out against them, he would be considered unjust himself. He knows that injustice being met with "injustice" does not promote "justice," and is willing to die rather than compromise ...

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... to escape from prison. So in the first incident, Socrates argues that the will of the people can be disobeyed when unjust, however in the second incident, he argues that the law should not be broken at any cost. Plato uses these scenarios to argue that Socrates is inconsistent in this matter. Upon ... and strength I shall never cease from the practice and teaching of philosophy (Plato p15). By saying this, Socrates claims that he will break the law in order to continue his virtuous ways. In the Crito, Socrates appears to completely contradict his prior argument from the Apology. Socrat...

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... despite Socrates" previous insistence of his innocence. He reasons so by asserting the existence of a social agreement, and that a violation of Athenian law would signify his reneging on the implicit compact between himself and the state. Thus damaging the laws, as well as Socrates' own future prospects, ... his innocence, as related by Plato, in The Apology. Why, we ask, might Socrates seem eager to accept his unjust punishment, accorded by unjust men, in this the most unjust of situations? Certainly, we believe this great philosopher Socrates, whose passion for justice seems equaled on...

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... admirable presences that helped change the way people view the world. Socrates and MLK Jr. both dealt with the question, "Is it just to break an unjust law?" In Plato's Crito and MLK Jr.'s "Letter from Birmingham Jail," this question is addressed. There are similarities and differences in the way Socrates and MLK ... this issue. Both Socrates and MLK Jr. use a nonviolent method of disobedience. Neither man used violence in his means of showing his dislike for certain unjust laws and yet both were punished for their actions and beliefs. Socrates and MLK Jr. believe that the majority does...

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... contradicting everything he had ever believed in. Socrates believed in the Athenian system and felt that the laws were right and just. He also felt that breaking the law would be betraying Athens and its people. If Socrates did not believe in the system, I do not think he would have stayed in Athens to be ... the public school system in 1954. So, he believed the Jim Crow laws should have been abandoned also. He believed in following the "just laws", but the "unjust laws" were to be broken. There were alternatives for M. L. King Jr. also. He could have done nothing and waited for the law...

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... the most. He also explored the duties and obligations of citizens to their government and vice versa. Aristotle discussed the notions of "just" and "unjust" and how laws affected them. According to Aristotle, there were three true forms of government: monarchy, aristocracy, and constitutional republic. The perverted forms of ... was a citizen who was loyal to its government, willing to die for his country, and also a person who abides by the laws, even unjust laws. A good citizen would also put the state before its family because the family was dependant upon the state for survival. Ari...

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... individuals and their desires by setting down a compact to not tolerate injustice or suffering. By setting down laws and compacts and to name what the law commands lawful and just.(Bloom,359a) Plato believed that even individuals who practice justice are forced to do it from the inability to do injustice due ... to fears of punishment. Plato felt that a democracy or rule of the people gave each man, both just and unjust, license to do whatever they wanted. While he felt that the law of a strong form of government would force men to honor the laws equally. Plato believed that justice was ...

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... The juries decision in the trial was for Socrates to be executed. Since that was their ruling, Socrates would have to oblige them and obey the law even though it meant his death. To do anything other than that would have been wrong. To further complicate the situation for Socrates, the very laws ... morally righteous or superior if he knows the true difference between what is right and what is wrong. If a man has this knowledge, then does something considered unjust or wrong, even if only he considers it to be a wrong action, he will bring damage to himself or to his soul. I believe Soc...

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• Has Bibliography
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