Is There a Duty to Obey the Law?

Is There a Duty to Obey the Law? PDF Author: Christopher Wellman
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1316582965
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 216

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Book Description
The central question in political philosophy is whether political states have the right to coerce their constituents and whether citizens have a moral duty to obey the commands of their state. In this 2005 book, Christopher Heath Wellman and A. John Simmons defend opposing answers to this question. Wellman bases his argument on samaritan obligations to perform easy rescues, arguing that each of us has a moral duty to obey the law as his or her fair share of the communal samaritan chore of rescuing our compatriots from the perils of the state of nature. Simmons counters that this, and all other attempts to explain our duty to obey the law, fail. He defends a position of philosophical anarchism, the view that no existing state is legitimate and that there is no strong moral presumption in favor of obedience to, or compliance with, any existing state.

Is There a Duty to Obey the Law?

Is There a Duty to Obey the Law? PDF Author: Christopher Wellman
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1316582965
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 216

Get Book Here

Book Description
The central question in political philosophy is whether political states have the right to coerce their constituents and whether citizens have a moral duty to obey the commands of their state. In this 2005 book, Christopher Heath Wellman and A. John Simmons defend opposing answers to this question. Wellman bases his argument on samaritan obligations to perform easy rescues, arguing that each of us has a moral duty to obey the law as his or her fair share of the communal samaritan chore of rescuing our compatriots from the perils of the state of nature. Simmons counters that this, and all other attempts to explain our duty to obey the law, fail. He defends a position of philosophical anarchism, the view that no existing state is legitimate and that there is no strong moral presumption in favor of obedience to, or compliance with, any existing state.

A Theory of Legal Obligation

A Theory of Legal Obligation PDF Author: Stefano Bertea
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108475108
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 379

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Book Description
Bertea puts forward a comprehensive and original theory of legal obligation, understood as a distinctive legal concept.

Understanding Moral Obligation

Understanding Moral Obligation PDF Author: Robert Stern
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139505017
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 293

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Book Description
In many histories of modern ethics, Kant is supposed to have ushered in an anti-realist or constructivist turn by holding that unless we ourselves 'author' or lay down moral norms and values for ourselves, our autonomy as agents will be threatened. In this book, Robert Stern challenges the cogency of this 'argument from autonomy', and claims that Kant never subscribed to it. Rather, it is not value realism but the apparent obligatoriness of morality that really poses a challenge to our autonomy: how can this be accounted for without taking away our freedom? The debate the book focuses on therefore concerns whether this obligatoriness should be located in ourselves (Kant), in others (Hegel) or in God (Kierkegaard). Stern traces the historical dialectic that drove the development of these respective theories, and clearly and sympathetically considers their merits and disadvantages; he concludes by arguing that the choice between them remains open.

God and Moral Obligation

God and Moral Obligation PDF Author: C. Stephen Evans
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199696683
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 210

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Book Description
C. Stephen Evans defends the claim that moral obligations are best understood as divine commands or requirements; hence an important part of morality depends on God. God's requirements are communicated in a variety of ways, including conscience, and that natural law ethics and virtue ethics provide complementary perspectives to this view.

Conflicts of Law and Morality

Conflicts of Law and Morality PDF Author: Kent Greenawalt
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0195058240
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 396

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Book Description
Powerful emotion and pursuit of self-interest have many times led people to break the law with the belief that they are doing so with sound moral reasons. This study is a comprehensive philosophical and legal analysis of the gray area in which the foundations of law and morality clash. In examining the extent of the obligations owed by citizens to their government, Greenawalt concentrates on the possible existence of a single source of obligation that reaches all citizens and all laws.

The Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Law

The Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Law PDF Author: Andrei Marmor
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0415878187
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 630

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Book Description
The Routledge Companion to the Philosophy of Law provides a comprehensive, non-technical philosophical treatment of the fundamental questions about the nature of law. Its coverage includes law's relation to morality and the moral obligations to obey the law, the main philosophical debates about particular legal areas such as criminal responsibility, property, contracts, family law, law and justice in the international domain, legal paternalism and the rule of law. The entirely new content has been written specifically for newcomers to the field, making the volume particularly useful for undergraduate and graduate courses in philosophy of law and related areas. All 39 chapters, written by the world's leading researchers and edited by an internationally distinguished scholar, bring a focused, philosophical perspective to their subjects. The Routledge Companion to the Philosophy of Law promises to be a valuable and much consulted student resource for many years.

The Concept of Moral Obligation

The Concept of Moral Obligation PDF Author: Michael J. Zimmerman
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521497060
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 148

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Book Description
The principal aim of this book is to develop and defend an analysis of the concept of moral obligation. What it seeks to do is generate new solutions to a range of philosophical problems concerning obligation and its application. Amongst these problems are deontic paradoxes, the supersession of obligation, conditional obligation, actualism and possibilism, dilemmas, supererogation, and cooperation. By virtue of its normative neutrality, the analysis provides a theoretical framework within which competing theories of obligation can be developed and assessed.

Philosophy of Law

Philosophy of Law PDF Author: Mark Tebbit
Publisher: Psychology Press
ISBN: 0415334411
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 262

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Book Description
"Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada."

Obligations

Obligations PDF Author: Scott Veitch
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000344851
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 176

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Book Description
Obligations: New Trajectories in Law provides a critical analysis of the role of obligations in contemporary legal and social practices. As rights have become the preeminent feature of modern political and legal discourse, the work of obligations has been overshadowed. Questioning and correcting this dominant image of our time, this book brings obligations back into view in a way that fits better with the realities of contemporary social life. Following a historical account of the changing place and priorities of obligations in modernity, the book analyses how obligations and practices of obedience are core to understanding how law sustains conditions of inequality. But it also explores the enduring role obligations play in furthering individual and collective well-being, highlighting their significance in practices that prioritize human and environmental needs, common goods, and solidarity. In doing so, it also offers an alternative and cogent assessment of the force, and the potential, of obligations in contemporary societies. This original jurisprudential contribution will appeal to an academic and student readership in law, politics, and the social sciences.

The Duty to Obey the Law

The Duty to Obey the Law PDF Author: William Atkins Edmundson
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 9780847692552
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 366

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Book Description
The question, 'Why should I obey the law?' introduces a contemporary puzzle that is as old as philosophy itself. The puzzle is especially troublesome if we think of cases in which breaking the law is not otherwise wrongful, and in which the chances of getting caught are negligible. Philosophers from Socrates to H.L.A. Hart have struggled to give reasoned support to the idea that we do have a general moral duty to obey the law but, more recently, the greater number of learned voices has expressed doubt that there is any such duty, at least as traditionally conceived. The thought that there is no such duty poses a challenge to our ordinary understanding of political authority and its legitimacy. In what sense can political officials have a right to rule us if there is no duty to obey the laws they lay down? Some thinkers, concluding that a general duty to obey the law cannot be defended, have gone so far as to embrace philosophical anarchism, the view that the state is necessarily illegitimate. Others argue that the duty to obey the law can be grounded on the idea of consent, or on fairness, or on other ideas, such as community.