& # 8211 ; Crito, By Plato, And Letter From Birmingham Jail, By Martin Luther King, Jr. Essay, Research Paper

Questionable Laws & A ; Peoples

In the article s of Crito, by Plato, and Letter from Birmingham Jail, by Martin Luther King, Jr. , two authors make a instance over whether it is moral or non to disobey Torahs. The inquiry to be answered in our concluding paper asks whether we agree with what the Laws say about if Socrates was to get away and why we feel that manner. It besides asks how we think Martin Luther King would hold responded to the judgement of the Laws of Athens. In this paper, I will turn to these inquiries every bit good as make a speedy overview of each article.

In Crito, Plato uses Socrates as a tool to reason the point. Socrates is in gaol for prophesying false Gods and perverting the young person by doing them to doubt or ignore the wisdom of their seniors. His friend Crito comes to see and pleads with him to get away from his imprisonment and decease sentence. Socrates asks Crito to give him one good ground that will keep up to scrutiny to carry him, and so he will take to get away. Crito brings up how people would believe of him because he wouldn t pass his money to acquire his friend out of gaol. Socrates goes on to invalidate this statement by stating that sentiments of the public doesn T affair, merely the sentiment of the authorization should be taken into consideration. Socrates besides says that he shouldn t head deceasing sing he had a long and full life. He goes on to indicate out that, the point of life is non to populate long but to populate good. Furthermore, that to populate good, one has to populate uprightly. He feels that he has lived a good life and if he were to get away, so he wouldn t be populating uprightly, therefore non doing life worth life. Crito gives him a few other grounds including ; believing about his household ( who would raise his kids? ) , believing about his followings ( they don t want him to decease ) , and that the guilty finding of fact was incorrect and unjust ( few Athenians truly wanted him set to decease ) . Socrates so goes on to explicate that his friends would raise his kids, as he would wish. Besides, he would be a jeer to his followings if he were to travel against his ain sermon. Last, the guilty finding of fact may be incorrect and unjust, but it was the error of adult male and non the Torahs, so why should he disobey the Torahs? He feels a province can non be without Torahs that are followed. Because he dismantled all of Crito s statements, he proved that there is no ground non to follow the Torahs. The Torahs raised him. He had opportunities to go forth or even to see other states if he was unhappy with the Torahs in Athens. He even could hold tried to alter some of the Torahs. However, now that he is on the other side of the Torahs, it doesn t mean that it is clip to get down disobeying them. After all the Torahs have done for him, why should he turn his dorsum and withstand them? After all, it wasn t the Torahs that have wronged him, but his fellow work forces. He finishes his statements with the Laws speech production to him explicating why he should obey them and non make as Crito petitions.

In Letter from Birmingham Jail, King is reacting to a statement that called his actions, unwise and prematurely. They besides said that he was an foreigner and shouldn Ts have been involved with a March in Birmingham. This statement was in response to his engagement in a non-violent run March in a town that still had many jobs with segregation. He explains that he was asked at that place because of organisational ties, and that he was at that place because of unfairness. He besides brings up that the presentations were in response to a meeting they had old with metropolis leaders where promises were made and so interrupt. He goes on to explicate the state of affairs and the demand for direct action so that it can take to dialogue. He besides brings up an thought that there is a difference in Torahs and how they are used. This difference is referred to as merely and unfair. Laws are unfair depending on if they restrict people below the belt, or if adult male uses them to curtail other people below the belt. He gives incrimination to the white centrist who is happy populating with a negative peace and non willing to hold the upset to derive a positive peaceableness. He gives illustrations of unfairnesss in the past, such as Christians being willing to confront hungry king of beastss versus subjecting to certain unfair Torahs of the Roman Empire. He says that society must, protect the robbed and penalize the robber. He besides brings up the illustration that what Adolf Hitler did in Germany was legal at the clip. Merely because it was legal, didn Ts make it right. He continues in his essay explicating how disquieted he is over how the churches are covering with this issue. How they say to follow the integration regulations because it is the jurisprudence alternatively of it being morally right. Finally, he brings up the point that they commended the Birmingham constabularies for maintaining order and forestalling force, nevertheless the constabulary used force to carry through this. He wishes they had com

mended the protestors for being courageous and covering with their aggression in a nonviolent manner. He closes with the hopes that everything will fall into topographic point and this conflict will be over.

Geting more in deepness with the Laws that Socrates used to back up his positions is the thought that if he disobeyed the Torahs, he would be go againsting them on three separate histories. These histories are: 1 ) because they are his parents, 2 ) because they are his defenders, and in conclusion, 3 ) because after assuring obeisance, he would be neither obeying them nor carrying them to alter their determination if they are at mistake. I would hold with these histories because like Socrates said earlier in the drama, the Torahs that are standing allowed his parents to get married and hold him, plus raise him in a quality manner, and so still required his male parent to educate him decently with cultural and physical instruction. If he had any jobs with any of these Torahs, he could hold left in hunt of a better authorities. He admits himself that there are two perfect authoritiess. He could hold moved himself at that place. However, alternatively of traveling, he chose to raise a household in Athens. Since he didn t travel off from Athens, and he didn t attempt to alter the Torahs, so he must be stating that the Torahs are all right. Therefore, he must stay by them. Sing the above, the Torahs raised him. They besides were his defenders by maintaining him safe. If anything were to bechance him, he would hold requital through the Torahs. And if he had any jobs with the Torahs because he thought them unfair, he could hold tried to carry them otherwise before he came to the point where he would hold to disobey them.

If Martin Luther King, Jr. had to react to the opinion of the Laws of Athens, I think he would convey up his point that non all Torahs are merely Torahs. He believes that there are two types of Torahs, merely and unfair. He, like Socrates, feels that there is a moral duty to obeying merely Torahs. However, he besides believes that people have a moral duty to disobey unfair Torahs. With this, he quotes St. Augustine with, An unfair jurisprudence is no jurisprudence at all. King goes on to explicate that a merely jurisprudence is a jurisprudence that uplifts human personality and it squares with moral jurisprudence. In add-on, an unfair jurisprudence is a jurisprudence that degrades human personality and is a codification that is out of harmoniousness with the moral jurisprudence. An easier manner to see this is that a merely jurisprudence is a jurisprudence that a group who enacts it will non mind following itself. On the reverse, an unfair jurisprudence is a jurisprudence that the group that enacts it would non desire required on them. Another job with merely and unfair Torahs would be a jurisprudence that is inflicted on a group who could non vote on it. King inquiries whether a jurisprudence enacted under such fortunes be considered democratically structured. King s sentiment is that An person who breaks a jurisprudence that scruples tells him is unfair and who volitionally accepts the punishment of imprisonment in order to elicit the scruples of the community over its unfairness is in world showing the highest regard for the jurisprudence. I feel that there he agrees with Socrates. Socrates sat in gaol and so imbibe hemlock because he taught what he believed was to be right. He lived with the penalty for his beliefs. He did non get away and avoid penalty. King brings up one other point as to the cogency of Torahs. He brings up the illustration of Hitler and how what Hitler did in Germany was legal at the clip. Although it was legal, we all know that it was still immoral. Therefore, to disobey that jurisprudence, and conceal the Judaic people, would be the right thing to make. To reason his beliefs, King felt that it is incorrect to press an single to halt their attempts in seeking to derive their constitutional rights because the act may take to force. A powerful quotation mark said by King is that, Society must protect the robbed and penalize the robber. So, although he may hold felt that it was incorrect for Socrates to be in gaol, and that society was penalizing the incorrect individual, he believed that it was like a March and therefore a positive thing for Socrates to make. With this, I feel that he would hold with the Laws of Athens because they are merely Torahs themselves. It was adult male that put Socrates in gaol and made him imbibe hemlock, non the Torahs. However, I think that if Martin Luther King, Jr. were in the same place, he would alternatively seek to carry them otherwise, as that is one of the picks of the Torahs.

Overall, I think that Socrates and King see eye-to-eye on this issue, nevertheless their grounds for believing so are different. King, on one side, looks at Socrates imprisonment as an act to convey idea to this jurisprudence. Whereas, Socrates sees it as merely obeying as he should and being moral. After all, he had his opportunity to take ostracism, and said that he would instead decease than be banished. I would wish to reason with a quotation mark from Socrates, It is ne’er right to make a incorrect or return a incorrect or support one s ego against hurt by revenge.