Is There a Duty To Obey The Law?

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Is There a Duty to Obey the Law, by Christopher Wellman and A. John Simmons’ is a for-and-against style examination and attempt to answer this age old question. Christopher Wellman, a self-avowed statist argues that we do have a moral duty to obey just laws of a legitimate regime. While, Christopher A. John Simmons argues that we do not have a moral duty to obey even just laws of a legitimate regime. In general the authors of both sections tend to devout most of their time not defended their stated belief, but either defending the philosophical school of thought that aligns with said position or by attempting to refute other contradictory philosophies. Wellman devotes the bulk of his essay using and justifying Samaritanism as the means to require the moral duty. Simmons’ spends the vast majority of his effort attempting to refute why certain schools of thought such as Associative, Transactional, and Natural State Theories are inadequate in justifying the core justification for a moral duty of obedience. I will briefly summarize and critique each author’s key concepts and conclude with my own beliefs on this matter. Needless to say, even upon completion of this work their remains much ambiguity and questions regarding an individual’s moral duty to obey the law. Wellman begins his essay is a way that made it hard for me to take the rest of his work seriously. He volunteers a narrative of viewing a bumper sticker as a child. The sticker read, “Taxation is slavery.” His response, recorded in the first few pages of his essay was one of horror, and that he recalls looking forward to the day when he could pay taxes as he was in awe of all good things government had done. ( 3) Being that Wellman had such a deep and lifelong love affair with the state it seems difficult to see his work as being in any way impartial, or philosophical, rather as a compilation of what he viewed

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