Response to Law and Authority - Essay Example

The question of an obligation to obey the law often crops up especially in the current world where some laws within a legal system are deemed to be unjust or evil and we find ourselves within such systems. All legal systems have laws that impose obligations for their obedience but each has different criteria for measuring such kind of obedience to the law. Obedience is the act of following orders without questioning as it is deemed that they come from a legitimate authority, which may be conferred upon a person or entity by the society.

Therefore, just as it is expected that all persons will be obedient to the law, the society expects that we obey the orders or the rules that are set by the legitimate authorities. Plato’s “Crito” examines how a person should respond to the law when he feels that the process has wrongly convicted him and suggests the ethical bases for obedience to the law. The ethical obligations to obey the law include the fact that, the citizen may have acquiesced to the existence of such a law and therefore, there is an implied or express accord to comply with the provisions of the said law, or if there is no implied agreement, his actions estop him from disobeying that law (Plato and Jowett, 1990).

If there is no action or assent by the citizen, he is simply a beneficiary conferred to him by other citizens and therefore has an obligation to obey the law. Socrates argued that if the state was indeed protecting its young ones, then it was right for him to be declared guilty of corrupting the minds of the youth and should be punished according to the law. This is despite his personal convictions, questionings to the members of the city and examining of logic to arrive at the true position.

Reflection on the thoughts in Crito, there is a clear understanding of the teachings of Plato in that as a matter of justice and rights, laws cannot in