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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dale Baker who wrote (6475)	12/9/2005 3:08:40 PM
From: TimF	Respond to of 542169

They are binding in a legal sense. A law was made and it is enforced. But I don't think I have a moral obligation to follow the law. Or more specifically I don't think I have a moral obligation to follow a law just because it is the law. I do have a moral obligation to follow many laws because in many cases the outlawed activity is itself morally wrong (murder, rape ect.) or the law specifies a requirement that I do something that I am morally obligated to do anyway (child support, if I had a child). If they are binding, what is the nature of your obligation to follow them? Just coercion, or is it the consent of the governed in a democracy? My obligation to follow laws is 1 - As stated above, if I have an obligation to do something or a responsibility not to do something, even if there where no law, the existence of a law hardly makes the requirement go away. 2 - coercion. 3 - I have a certain obligation to try to get along with the rest of humanity. If I generally ignore the law I will create stress and conflict with other people, such stress and conflict generally isn't good. If the law is not generally unjust or unreasonable it would be a good idea to follow it. I'm not sure I'd quite call it a moral obligation but it is a good idea. 4 - I'll describe this one by example. I should drive on the right hand side of the street. There is nothing inherently wrong with driving on the left side. They do it just fine in the UK. But the convention in the US is that we drive on the right. I should do so as well. This is similar to #3 above but its different in that driving on the wrong side of the road directly creates a hazardous situation. I have a moral obligation to avoid putting other people in danger. Tim