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Obligation In Plato's Crito

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In Plato’s Crito, we see that he tries to point out the problem of political obligations of the citizen by using the relationship between Socrates and Crito and how they have different views on these obligations. As known, Plato portrays Socrates as a model citizen. Socrates has just been sentenced to death, but is sent to jail as he awaits his fatal fate. Socrates believes in the commitment to civic obligations and the rule of law and is willing to stand by his beliefs, even if he has to stay in jail and even if he will be in danger of being put to death. His friend Crito tries to talk him into attempting to escape the jail, by talking about voluntary injustice, talkina about how citizens regard the rule of law as just but they have the will to commit injustices. This in turn causes their obligations as citizens to become a problem. By talking about political obligation, the conflict between legal rights and personal opinion is implied over …show more content…

Reading this text, it is easy to differentiate between them. Martin Luther King says that a just law connects back to the moral law of the law of God. He said that an unjust law is one that is not at all in balance with the moral law. A just law in his words is one that lifts an individual up instead of degrading them. In other words, Martin Luther King Jr. strongly believes that the citizen has a legal and moral responsibility to obey laws that are just, as well as the moral responsibility to disobey laws that are unjust. He made it clear that he did not advocate the disobedience of laws unless they are unjust. He believes a law is unjust if it downgrades the individual, if it sets apart or segregates different groups of people. Unjust laws should not be accepted just because the government has said that it must be followed. If something is immoral, it would be wrong to accept them and not at against

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