Thoreau’s "Civil Disobedience" Major Themes Civil Government and Higher Law. In Civil Disobedience‚ Thoreau’s basic premise is that a higher law than civil law demands the obedience of the individual. Human law and government are subordinate. In cases where the two are at odds with one another‚ the individual must follow his conscience and‚ if necessary‚ disregard human law. Thoreau prepared his lecture and essay on resistance to civil government in response to a specific eventthe Mexican War
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MORALS Morals http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/kant-hume-morality/ Growing up I always was told to tell the truth‚ treat everyone how you would want to be treated and not to lie‚ cheat‚ or steal because these are morals I should live by. The definition of morals is a principle or habit with respect to right or wrong conduct. What is right and wrong‚ and who decides these rights and wrongs? I will go back and explore Kant and Locke to hopefully answer my questions. • The values people
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or even now‚ has restrictions we call laws that make zero sense. Not adequate or not favorable to our society. But who came up with these “rules?” Disobeying these “laws” have made our country something great. If it wasn’t because our historical disobedience we would still be living under the “white/colored” division we once had. We came really far from what we once were. Progress. Racism‚ one of our greatest historical mistakes. Some of you might call it something not bad. We would still be living
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Olaf Thorson Johnson IB English‚ Period 4 January 1‚ 2013 Civil Disobedience and Antigone Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech focuses on the importance of freedom and brotherhood in a nation and is intended to rally Americans to demonstrate their anger at the injustices of segregation and racism through “creative protest.” While King’s passion and anger at the status quo is obvious in the text‚ he specifically states that they “must not allow [their] [protest] to degenerate into
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The civility on which the practical and moral consequences of calculated disobedience rely depends on the motivations and actions of its initiators. They must not be motivated by greed or hatred‚ because those emotions remove from disobedience both civility and morality. It is a pure‚ selfless goal that ideologically separates the civil disobeyer from the criminal one. Practically‚ however‚ it is how one carries out his disobedience that sets him apart in the eyes of the public and societal
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do all of these significant events have in common? They are all acts of nonviolent civil disobedience that have drastically altered society’s moral code. Each of the movements mentioned had a purpose of ensuring that the group they are representing has an equal opportunity and an equal access to their country’s rights as others. However‚ still many people in a free society believe acts of civil disobedience are unjust and harmful to people within society; though‚ more often than not‚ these groups
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The subject of civil disobedience is a controversial topic‚ one that sparks much debate. On one hand‚ one could argue that protesting or actively disobeying a law one sees as unjust threatens the legal system and‚ in turn‚ negatively impacts society. However‚ history has shown that‚ in cases of unjust laws‚ civil disobedience provides the pressure that pushes open the door to change. A free society is based on the ideals of equal rights and opportunities for all. People are inherently flawed‚ and
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Thoreau’s Ideas About “Civil Disobedience” Outdated Today? “Civil disobedience” is an intentional and non-violent disobedience of law by an individual who believes that a certain law is unjust and who is willing to accept the penalty for breaking that law to bring about change and public awareness. When Henry David Thoreau wrote “On The Duty of Civil Disobedience” in 1849‚ he advocated that democracy in America could only be improved by individual activism and civil disobedience to unjust laws. Thoreau’s
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constitutional and moral obligations to do so. We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal- yet in modern day American society‚ discrimination and injustice appears to prevail. To secure citizen’s unalienable rights‚ governments are instituted among men‚ deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends‚ it is the right of the people to alter it‚ doing so through means of civil disobedience.
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lived during the Apartheid‚ a period similar to America’s segregation system. The South African government set laws in place to prevent racial equality‚ but in the face of oppression‚ Mandela and his followers staged many acts of civil disobedience. Civil disobedience acts‚ not as a hindrance of free society‚ but as a tool to disband oppressive governments. According to the social contract theory‚ we created government to protect our rights. We sacrificed our power for the greater good of humanity
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