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Role Of Civil Disobedience In Henry David Thoreau's State Of Social Contract

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Next, social contract is another way philosophers justify the legitimacy of a state and why it exists. Locke believed people naturally exist in a state of unrestricted liberty, whereby they are each allowed to exercise their rights to any extent they wish so long as they do not interfere with the liberties of another individual. People must give up a degree of their liberties to form a social structure and reap its benefits. In the end, most people join into societies for the sake of protecting the rights they have to their property. Rousseau another philosopher who thought very similar in thought to Locke in regards to the state of nature, which he argues is a state of perfect freedom that society only constrains and steals from its inhabitants. …show more content…

While citizens may have the right to leave their society/homeland in theory, in reality they are expected to observe a degree of obedience to the society and its leaders that raised and accepted such citizens. To abandon one’s home society would be seen as a breaking of a covenant made between it and the citizen, and therefore warranting punishment. With this idea Plato wants us to realize that it’s an obligation to have obedience for our society that we live in. Thoreau expressed that governments are generally inefficient and prone to vice and corruption. In such cases when a government abandons its moral obligations just citizens have a duty to resist the improper practices of their leaders for the sake of making these flaws apparent so that they can be corrected and the state’s purity restored. Civil disobedience has three conditions that have to be justified according to Rawls. These conditions include appeals to the concept of justice and infringements are major, attempts to correct the issue legally have stalled or failed, and if a group is engaging in this form of dissent, another group which has suffered under similar conditions is also justified in

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Resistance to Civil Government (Civil Disobedience) is a dissertation written by American abolitionist, author and philosopher Henry David Thoreau published by Elizabeth Peabody in the Aesthetic Papers in 1849. Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) was born and lived almost his life in Concord, Massachusetts. After finishing public and private school in Concord he attended the prestige Harvard University. He excelled at Harvard despite leaving school for several months due to health and financial setbacks. Mr. Thoreau graduated in the top half of his class in 1837.

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In both readings of Plato’s “The Apology” and Thoreau’s “Civil Disobedience” one major principle that comes out of Thoreau’s text that Socrates would agree with is that in the face of laws by the state one should only abide if it is moral. Additionally, Thoreau believes that justice is superior to the laws enacted by the government, and the individual has the right to judge whether a given law reflects or flouts justice. Thoreau and Socrates believe that humans are moral beings and that virtue is very important. In contrast, however, even though both individuals have a lot of similarities there were some areas where Socrates’ views differed with Thoreau.

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In Civil Disobedience, Henry David Thoreau questions what men should do when unjust laws exist. He asks, "Shall we be content to obey them, or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey them until we have succeeded or shall we transgress them at once?" Thoreau says that most people wait until the majority have been persuaded to alter the unjust laws. Socrates would agree that most people do wait until the majority believes that the law is unjust. In the short account that Socrates shares when the oligarchy was established, Socrates and four other men were summoned to the Hall by the Thirty.

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Dr. Seuss said, “Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.” He is saying that one should not care what others negatively think about them because it is irrelevant to the significance of their life. Civil-Disobedience and Walden by Henry David Thoreau, and Self-Reliance by Ralph Waldo Emerson also give advice on how to make life as meaningful as possible. These pieces of literature all present diverse ways of creating a meaningful existence. Thoreau and Emerson express their opinions about creating a purposeful life through Civil-Disobedience, Self-Reliance, and Walden.

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Near the beginning of his renowned essay, "Civil Disobedience," Henry David Thoreau appeals to his fellow citizens when he says, "...I ask for, not at once no government, but at once a better government. " This request serves as a starting point from which the rest of "Civil Disobedience" emerges. Thoreau 's essay is particularly compelling because of its incorporation of rhetorical strategies, including the use of logos, ethos, pathos, purposive discourse, rhetorical competence and identification. I will demonstrate how each of these rhetorical techniques benefit Thoreau 's persuasive argument. Thoreau uses logos throughout his essay to strengthen his argument with reasoning.

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