hornadylnl
Shooter
- Nov 19, 2008
- 21,505
- 63
No, I don't. Because obeying the law IS a moral act, but not the ULTIMATE moral act. There are hierarchies of moral authority. Do you obey your parents over your priest? your teacher over a cop?
I would feel comfortable disobeying the law requiring me to shoot an 8-year old. Your hypothetical is red herring and you should know that already.
There are times when it may be more moral to disobey the law. But that is a high bar to reach, because I personally recognize the law as a very high moral authority-- to the degree I try to follow it even when I disagree with it.
I never said that laws are morals. I said that obeying the law is a moral act (you quoted me and STILL got it wrong?).
I also said that all law has a moral component to it.
Laws are the authoritative allocation of values (morals) in a society. My personal morals may differ because I recognize different moral authorities than society as a whole. But as a SOCIETY, the law is the best indication of what we deem to be our values.
Politics is therefore the process in which we struggle to control the allocation of those societal values. It is the attempt to make our own moralities the society's morality (unless we are personally moral hypocrites and claim the untenable belief that our morals are best, but not applicable to anyone else).
Thus, law IS the legislation of morality.
QED
It used to be immoral to marry outside of your race, vote if you're a woman or minority, etc. those were societies morals at one time. I think I'll pass.