Martin Luther King, Jr. & Socrates on Civil Disobedience

Philosophers and political activists alike have struggled to determine the conditions under which human beings are morally entitled to disobey the law. Two thinkers -- Socrates and the more contemporary Dr. Martin Luther King -- will be used in advancing a personal belief in the necessity of civil disobedience under certain circumstances. It will be argued herein that whereas Socrates rejected any form of civil disobedience that brought an individual into conflict with the State, Dr. Martin Luther King held that there were times when a man needed to engage in non-violent protest and disobedient acts in defense of liberty and freedom. It is King's position that I share.

Socrates, as described by Plato (1973) in The Republic, was firmly convinced that a man was required to object even the unjust dictates of the State. When accused of corrupting the youth of Athens, Socrates defended himself with vigor and passion; he argued before the Athenian Senate that he had not corrupted youth, but had instead attempted to inculcate in