Write an essay that discusses the concepts of duty and law.

Plato and Socrates, “the apology” and “the Crito”; Henry David Thoreau, “civil disobedience”; martin Luther king, “letter from a Birmingham jail”; Sophocles, “antigun” here are some starting points to get you thinking about how you might draw the works together for your discussion: Socrates holds to the idea that he has a duty to the laws of state into which he was “born, nurtured and educated” (Plato, “Crito” 31), and therefore he must uphold the verdict and take his punishment. To do otherwise would break his obligations to those laws and his character, morality, and understanding of justice. Thoreau, king, and Sophocles’ character Antigone are confronted with laws which they find unjust. Their sense of duty and obligation, therefore, is tested. King, argues, “one may well ask, ‘how can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others?’ the answer is found in the fact that there are two types of laws: there are just laws, and there are unjust laws”. Thoreau wonders, “Can there not be a government in which majorities do not virtually decide right and wrong but conscience?” The two sisters in Antigone must decide where their duties lie. Ismene, Antigone’s sister pleas, “and now the two of us left alone—think how we will die, most miserably of all, if in defiance of the law we transgress the decree and power of the king”. One sister will choose obedience; one will chose defiance. Further suggestions: begin by thinking about what duty means.

A synonym of “obligation” and other related term might be “responsibility,” perhaps even “contract.” to what or whom do we have obligations? Is the law meant to enforce these? Protect these? What is the duty of the law? What is the duty of lawmakers, of society as a whole, of the individual? When and under what circumstances can we break these obligations? Should we? What about other kinds of laws—rules in the dorm, guidelines given by parents, public safety laws, gods’ laws? Compare or contrast viewpoints expressed by these authors.