“Morality is not really the doctrine of how to make ourselves happy but of how we are to be worthy of happiness.” Immanuel Kant

WHAT IS MORALITY?

“Respect for the truth comes close to being the basis for all morality.” Frank Herbert

“Reverence for life affords me my fundamental principle of morality.” Albert Schweitzer

“Those are my principles. If you don't like them I have others.” Groucho Marx

“The most important human endeavor is the striving for morality in our actions. Our inner balance and even our very existence depend on it. Only morality in our actions can give beauty and dignity to life.” Charles Dickens

MORALITY A system of principles and judgments based on cultural religious, philosophical concepts and beliefs, by which humans determine whether given actions, are right or wrong.

LAW Enforceable rules governing relationships among persons between persons and society

If law prohibited you from doing something you felt was moral

If law required you to do something you felt was immoral

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968

BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA 1963

“I am in Birmingham because injustice is here.” “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

How can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others?

Types of Law  “Just” Laws  “Unjust” laws  “Just” on its face, but “unjust” in its application

“Just” Laws  Squares with moral law  Uplifts the human personality  Imposed by Majority but equally binding on all

“Unjust” Laws  Out of harmony with moral law  Degrades human personality  Imposed by majority upon minority only  Enacted without ability of minority to participate

“Unjust” in its Application Parade Permit Required “Unjust in Application” = “Unjust Law

“Unjust” law = No Law perversion “An unjust law is not a law, in the full sense of the word. It retains merely the 'appearance' of law… it is a perversion of law” Summa Theologica St. Thomas Acquinas

LEGAL vs MORAL Obligations

Legal Obligation Obey all laws whether just or unjust

Moral Obligation Obey Just Laws Disobey “Unjust” Laws Openly Lovingly Willing to accept all legal penalties

DIRECT ACTION Four steps must be followed in order to correctly disobey unjust laws 1. Collection of facts 2. Negotiation 3. Self-purification 4. Direct action

“Let us realize the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.