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Political Obligation And Martin Luther King's Letter From A Birmingham Jail

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Fundamentally, a society that aims to maintain order and peace will create some form of a legal code. Whether it be a set of rules that represent society’s beliefs, or an uncodified social contract, laws establish order in a society for individuals who would otherwise act unruly. The argument whether all laws should be abided by at all times or not is examined in both Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy: Political Obligation and Martin Luther King Jr. “Letter From A Birmingham Jail”. Proposed by Socrates, Hobbes and Kant, it is crucial that citizens follow the law, rather than arbitrarily breaking the law because it doesn’t follow an individual’s morals. Contrastingly, according to Martin Luther King, unjust laws created by corrupt rulers …show more content…

When convicted for “corrupting the youth”, Socrates was imprisoned and sentenced to death. Though his friends gathered and created an escape plan, he chose to stay and face the “fatal hemlock” (Stanford, Socrates, 1). He stated three principle reasons to follow the law. In the first, gratitude theory, he states that he should not disrespect the law because he “owes his birth, nurture, and education” to it; to break it would be to disrespect it and all of the good it has done for him. He also argued that since he has lived all of his life in Athens, he has a “commitment” to obey the laws in place. His final argument, that of “fair play”, states that, if an individual breaks the law, it acts as a “mistreatment” to their “fellow citizens”. If a citizen were to break the law, it would not only be ungracious to the definitive force that granted them with education, but also a disgrace to the individual's fellow …show more content…

He firmly believes in the importance of following a moral code, and applauds those who break unjust laws to “arouse the conscience of the community”. King’s argument, however, is grounded on the basis that people are inherently good, a basis that Hobbes would likely disagree with. If in society, people acted morally all the time, it would be plausible to follow King’s theory, however, his theory is impractical. King argues that “an unjust law is no law at all”, and therefore should be broken. De facto, if people broke laws according to how “just” they were, individuals would pick and choose which laws to follow, based on their own benefits and disadvantages. While King does concede that constant evasion of laws would lead to “anarchy”, he stills believes that respectfully breaking the law shows the “highest respect” for it, an argument that is flawed according to gratitude theory (King, 40). Though non-violent breaking of the law could work in an ideal society, simply put, current society today is not invariably good. In fact, without laws to dictate what is right and wrong, a society would fall into an anarchic state; it is dubious that society would not turn to

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Letter from Birmingham Jail – Analysis Questions 1.) Audience: The audience the clergymen were trying to reach was Martin Luther King Junior; they were trying to explain why they feel like the segregation movements are, as the letter describes it, a bother to the people of Alabama. The Clergyman’s letter was discussing the people who feel as though they are having to “deal with racial problems in Alabama.” Martin Luther King Junior’s speech was trying to explain to the clergymen why black people feel the need to cause a movement, and why he feels the need to lead such a big event, like ending racism.

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History has only proven that the insufficiency of equality as individuals brings hostility between people. For example, the discrimination that people of color had suffered due to the rules and restrictions that were imposed to them. Even though, they were American born citizens, the government was not treating them as equal. Therefore, they started to fight for their rights; most of their manifests were non-violent but due to the discernment from the opposite side some of those protests ended up in riots. Dr. Martin Luther king Jr. even describes their frustrations on a letter that he wrote to his oppose white fellow.

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“Letter from Birmingham Jail” ABCBC Paragraph In the text “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, by Martin Luther King Jr., King used the power of pathos and rhetorical questions to enhance his claim about the injustice of segregation along with advocating for civil disobedience. The text reads, “All segregation statutes are unjust because segregation distorts the soul and damages the personality” (King, page 7). One can see from this that the use of pathos persuades the readers opinion in the matter in that pathos allows a writing to appeal to your emotions in evoking an emotional response. The evidence suggests a strong credibility on why segregation is inequitable supporting the authors purpose to validate how segregation vigorously twists the

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In 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. led a peaceful movement in Birmingham, Alabama. The purpose of the demonstration was to bring awareness and end to racial disparity in Birmingham. Later that night, King and his followers were detained by city authorities. While in custody, King wrote the famous “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” This letter voiced out his disappointment in the criticisms, and oppositions that the general public and clergy peers obtained.

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In his 1963 “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” Dr. Martin Luther King Junior essentially states that “Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than misunderstanding from people of ill will.” This quote by Dr. King is extremely true, and relative to anyone. His quote’s understanding is hard for anyone to see on the surface, but after taking a while to realize its meaning, it makes sense why the quote is considered famous. Understanding the quote begins with breaking down the entire sentence. “Shallow understanding…” represents the basic knowledge, or foundation that people teach to one another.

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Letter from Birmingham Jail Response Within “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” Martin Luther King, Jr. positions himself as a tired man; tired of waiting, tired of fighting, yet perseveres relentlessly with great momentum. “My feets is tired, but my soul is rested” (“Letter from Birmingham Jail” 6), a message to those who oppose freedom of the black man that this is a battle which will not easily dissipate. Raised by the gospel, King sees everything wrong with what is taught by white Christianity and quickly corrects the error in their ways, drawing reference to the Bible throughout his letter. King shows an apparent dumbfounded-ness toward the South’s religious leaders, who issued a public statement condemning the actions of peaceful protests

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King equated his actions as well as other leaders to great prophets and teachers of ancient and biblical times. He also said that “injustices anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere”. King wrote “just as Socrates felt that it was necessary to create a tension in the mind so that individuals could rise from the bondage of myths and half-truths to the unfettered realm of creative analysis and objective appraisal, we must see the need of having nonviolent gadflies to create the kind of tension in society that will help men to rise from the dark depths of prejudice and racism to the majestic heights of understanding and brotherhood”. Therefore, King’s approach is effective in gaining the attention of his audience by stating the truth, presenting various facts in his composition.

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Political activists and philosophers alike have a challenging task of determining the conditions under which citizens are morally entitled to go against the law. Socrates and Martin Luther King, Jr. had different opinions on the obligation of the citizens in a society to obey the law. Although they were willing to accept the legal punishment, King believed that there are clear and definable circumstances where it would be appropriate, and sometimes mandatory, to purposely disobey unjust laws. Socrates did not. Socrates obeyed what he considered to be an unjust verdict because he believed that it was his obligation, as a citizen of Athens, to persuade or obey its Laws, no matter how dire the consequences.

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Civil rights leader, Martin Luther King Jr, in his Letter from Birmingham City Jail, argues against criticism from eight Alabama clergymen, and addresses their concerns. He defends his position, and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), against accusations of disturbing the peace in Birmingham, as well as explaining his values and opinions. Throughout the letter, King adopts a strong logical and credible tone, and reinforces his position through the use of strong emotional justifications, in order to appeal to the clergymen and defend his public image. Martin Luther King opens up his Letter from Birmingham City Jail by appealing to the clergymen's emotions, and assuring his peaceful response, which he describes in "patient and

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Essay #2: Argumentative Analysis Martin Luther King Jr. introduced a very controversial argument about why he believed that “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere”(264). In “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” King stated that justice is never given by the oppressor and the reason why his protests were very relevant and wise was because the issues needed to be addressed right then and not later. Moving along throughout his entire letter his primary thesis seemed to be that if the people wanted to be free from racial injustice they needed to participate in nonviolent protests. Given his setting and atmosphere, MLK did an extremely impressive job of using kairos and other rhetorical techniques in his piece.

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“There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over and men are no longer willing to be plunged into an abyss of injustice where they experience the bleakness of corroding despair” ( King, Martin Luther). King introduces this quote in order to display that African Americans have been put down for so long, that they are no longer inclined to undergo further discrimination. In August 1963, the “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” was written by Martin Luther King Jr in the occasion of segregation issues and the fact that he showed up to Birmingham. His letter addressed the eight white religious leaders of the South in response to a public statement of concern and caution that was issued by the leaders; King was trying to make a point about how

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Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” was written in 1963, during the height of the Civil Rights Movement. Before the civil rights movement, the nation had the civil war, from 1861 to 1865. Then, following the war added the 13th amendment to the constitution, which made slavery illegal on December 6, 1865. Consequently, after the civil war the south went under “reconstruction”, a period in time where the federal government aided in rebuilding the southern states. Once President Hayes was elected federal troops were pulled out of the south, nevertheless supremacists began to enforce segregation and limited African Americans from voting.

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Chattel slavery allowed for the white people to perceive slaves as property. However, once abolished we, the people, continue to believe that slavery is no more. However, we are wrong slavery occurs in prison. This prison industrial complex has allowed for slavery to continue. When society forces the individual to commit these crimes, and as a result the legal system deems legal bondage as punishment.

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Laws are rules that everyone in a society must obey in order for their society to function successfully. The law exists to protect to project the general safety and to ensure that the rights of citizens are not abused, however law is a regulatory force is violent. In order for those rules to be obeyed the law must incorporate some form of punishment or violence for citizens who do not follow the law. In this essay I will use an example from the bible to argue that the law uses violence to maintain order and therefore there can be no law without violence.

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Because in a true democracy, it is the responsibility of the citizens to disobey the laws that aren’t truly aiding in the progressive nature of society. A democracy can’t be effective without active participation. With that, Martin Luther King Jr.’s Letter from Birmingham Jail is a cornerstone in how we should approach the discussion of whether it is or isn’t reasonable to disobey a law. King agrees with St. Augustine in that “an unjust law is no law at all.” This enforces the idea that an unjust law is virtually not present because it is inevitably meant to be broken.

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