21st Century Agora: Moral Responsibilty

Thursday, January 7, 2010

Moral Responsibilty

"One not only has a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws"
-Martin Luther King Jr.

I think that we can agree that the majority would say it is right to obey just laws. (Although from our discussion of cheating today, I'm not so sure...) We know that in the quote above, King was referring to the segregation laws in the U.S. and that as a leader, he encouraged some non-violent rebellion. King's time is an extreme case of his quote because it dealt with what now clearly view as an unethical set of laws. However, do we really have the responsibility to disobey "unjust" laws? If so, how do we determine which laws are unjust, and to what level can we exercise disloyalty to these laws? Where do we draw the line?

2 comments:

rachelc said...: Ali- This MLK Jr. quote parallels Thoreau's beliefs expressed in his "Civil Disobedience."
The historical events upon which this country (and others) are based suggests that we do, in fact, have responsibility to disobey unjust laws.
I have no idea how any line at all is to be drawn, since certainly all sorts of people would consider things differently; the discussion of cheating demonstrates that clearly.
Most people, I would assume, would consider that common sense and reasoning would be the best justifications for drawing the line; but when entering the area of emotions, the line already so ill-defined blurs even more; other areas of knowing counter their applicabilities to draw the line with their respective issues of knowing.
Confusing! So let's just clear up the matter entirely; the line shall be drawn:

good / just laws
_________

bad / unjust laws

(just kidding. ); January 9, 2010 at 10:01 PM
Magister P said...: Wow! Ali...are you sure you are not a TOK teacher in disguise? The questions you posed are exactly the kind of thing I might have used on an exam, or that IB would have sent out as a paper topic. And both of you, Ali and Rachel, nice use of historical events to enrich your discussion.

I want to see more on this, and I will not let anyone off the hook with a vague or subjectively relativistic approach! :); January 11, 2010 at 11:39 AM

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Thursday, January 7, 2010

Moral Responsibilty

2 comments:

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