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Dr martin luther king philosophy
Martin Luther King philosophy and contribution
Martin luther king philosophy
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Martin Luther King Jr. is a historical martyr for his ambition and dedication towards racial equality. His words of wisdom, displayed in his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”, have been carried down through many generations as one of the nation’s most captivating and intuitive philosophical views. However, his words are rooted from the great philosophers that have come before him; such as Plato, Descartes, Rousseau, and Mill.
In King’s letter he speaks greatly towards the importance of individual civil rights. He states, “injustice anywhere, is a threat to justice everywhere”. Creating a massive association between the individual and the community as a whole. King strongly believes in Mills “distributed good” as he credits it will serve as
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a basis of construction for corporate good. To reach this goal however, King speaks of the need of an appropriate general will in the law. Furthermore, he states that any laws that may impede the civil rights of an individual are unjust and that the community has a “moral responsibility” to disobey it. However, an individual must disobeys by acts of civil disobedience, and be willing to accept the repercussions of his actions. King stresses the importance of addressing Birmingham’s laws as it effects the character and individuals of the society. In an ideal society, King envisions equality amongst men, as well a system that respects the rights of all individuals. This society can only be constructed however, when individuals contain communal identity as well as a sense of skepticism to advance the understanding of the community. To further understand the expression of King’s views one must turn to various philosophers who initiated the inquisition that King further pursuits.
The essence of Kings letter is greatly powered by an individuals need for communal identity as well as the need to create a just tension. This notion arose in Plato’s literary work that depicts Socrates. His quest to acquire knowledge and comprehension of the laws set by the King and the Clergymen of Athens much resemble Kings attempt to confront racial imbalance that was not being addressed within Birmingham. Socrates and King are able to create a tension that forces the community to confront the issues at hand. However, although both individuals do not silently idle by the unjust laws or claims, they both accept the repercussions the society enacts on them for their civil disobedience. King states, one who breaks an unjust law must do so “with a willingness to accept the penalty”. When Socrates is charged with corrupting the young, he is given the opportunity to live life in exile. However, he endures the verdict of death, to respect his community’s laws as well as his communal identity that would be lost if he were to leave Athens. King accepts his incarceration with the same connotation as Socrates, deeming it “the highest respect for the
law”. In Meditations, Descartes further emphasizes the theme of skepticism. When relating the realistic feel of dreams to every day life, Descartes is able to enter all things into the subject of doubt, except for one’s self. King’s views mirror this skepticism as he questions the laws legislated in Birmingham. Like Descartes, King pushes further as to claim self-affirmation. Encouraging individuals to think for one’s self and civilly disobey laws which are morally unjust. The emphasize on the distributed good that ensures equality amongst the people is a humanistic ideal that Descartes generated when saying “I think; therefore, I am”. When King speaks to societal reform, he emulates the moralities of Rousseau. Rousseau utters, “man is born free but is everywhere in chains”. In King’s letter he describes the African American people of Birmingham being denied democracy towards legislation that restraints them, adding to this theme of societal chains. Rousseau further progresses his ideas as to ponder on the state of nature. From which, a community must be built using the social contract. King however, believes this framework of community is already intact but merely needs to rid itself of the unjust laws to reach Rousseau’s vision. Mill’s ideologies are then incorporated into King’s letter when speaking of freedom beneath the government. In Mill’s On Liberty, he defines the three regions of liberty for the individual. In Utilitarianism, Mill introduces the concept of “the greatest good for the greatest number”. Both of these concepts are warped into King’s complaint. He argues the black community has been denied their regions of liberty and states that they have been overlooked when administering the “greatest good”. Therefore, the society cannot function correctly as a community until the general will is administered. Although King firmly maintains his moral stance, he does reiterate the claims of the ministers of Birmingham. Stating that they believe these are “social issues, with which the gospel has no real concern”. Justifiably, this claim can be supported with that notion. Individuals of the clergy no longer held the aligned power of a king as they have once before. They were more focused on biblical gospel than every day social components of an individual’s life. This narrowing on religious power could also be used to further explain the churches lack of involvement with the movement. Because this was a very controversial topic at this time the clergymen might have also wanted to maintain a neutral stance, therefore maintaining their dedicated Christian congregation. However, King is quick the rebuttal their claims and further states that the churches negations of the subject will only ensure “it will lose its authenticity and forfeit the loyalty of millions”. This section of Kings letter serves to provide a stronger claim than that of the clergymen of Birmingham. By analyzing the churches stance and further implying it to be that of “disgust”, King uses their own claim to question their religious virtue. King apologizes to any men or clergymen who have mistaken his words or for who he has offended at the concluding his letter. His assertions to speak of what is morally just as well as his sentiment when doing so is Kings legacy on its own. However, determining what is morally just as well as how to fix the immorality of a community is deep-rooted from many philosophers.
... and Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "Letter From Birmingham Jail" are very different in terms of literary technique and approach, the two works bear some uncanny similarities that yield some surprising likenesses in many aspects. The comparisons and contrasts drawn here highlight the most significant of those features with respect to the works of two men who are both revered for the virtues they espoused during their lifetimes.
Throughout Martin Luther King Jr.’s powerful and courageous excerpt, “Letter from Birmingham City Jail,” many tenets of transcendentalism are apparent as he wrote in the margins of a newspaper sitting in jail. Out of the ten tenets of transcendentalism, the three that are displayed the most in the excerpt are Society and Corruption, Intuition, and Self-Reliance. The uses of these three tenets, Society and Corruption, Intuition, and Self-Reliance, are all displayed and included to show the fact that Martin Luther King Jr.’s writing and opinions were against racial segregation.
Martin Luther King Jr., is one of the most recognized, if not the greatest civil rights activist in this century. He has written papers and given speeches on the civil rights movement, but one piece stands out as one of his best writings. “Letter from Birmingham” was an intriguing letter written by King in jail in the city of Birmingham, Alabama. He was responding to a letter written by eight Alabama Clergyman that was published in a Birmingham Alabama newspaper in 1963 regarding the demonstrations that were occurring to stop segregation. The intended audience for this letter was of course the eight clergymen, but he also had a wider audience in mind because instead of sending each individual man a letter he had it published in the local newspaper.
Argumentation has followed humans from the dawn of time as a way for us to express our ideas and for our ideas to be heard. People naturally obtain the knowledge to persuade others, either backing their opinions by fact or touching others emotionally, from growing up and through their own experiences in life. We can be persuaded by a numerous amounts of different factors pertaining to the argument. There are four different types of strategies in which an argument can be presented and make the argument effective. Martin Luther King is a key example of the utilization of the strategies as he wrote, “Letter from Birmingham Jail” and Nicholas Carr also portrays the strategies with his essay, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” Both authors perfectly
Martin Luther King, Jr. is known to be a civil rights activist, humanitarian, a father, and a clergyman. He is well known for fighting for the equal rights of colored people and ending discrimination. King’s Letter from Birmingham Jail is an important part of history that showed King’s opinion of a letter that he happened to read in the newspaper written by a group of clergyman. In this letter, the group of clergyman report that colored people, also known as black people, are being violent towards Birmingham City. Also, the clergymen believed the time that will allow segregation to be diminished was not happening anytime soon because it is not convenient. King refuted the clergymen’s argument in a variety of ways using tactics of argumentation and persuasion like appeal to emotion through real life examples, appeal to logic, and even articulating certain phrases through metaphors and word choice. Many of these different tactics of argumentation and persuasion made his letter very effective and is now seen as a great piece that is looked upon highly today.
In reading the first few paragraphs in the “Letter from Birmingham Jail” Martin Luther King Jr shows commitment to all African Americans. He says, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere”. In the one sentence King declared that he would fight racial...
“…When you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate filled policemen curse, kick and even kill your black brothers and sisters…” –Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from a Birmingham Jail. Over the years, many groups of people have been denied basic human rights just based on simple things such as gender or race. These acts go against the UDHR, or the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The UDHR is a document of the equal and inalienable rights/freedoms all people are born with. One statement from the UDHR that was disregarded is the right to an equal education. An example from not too long ago is the story of Malala Yousafzai who was shot for trying to get an education because she is a girl. Article 26 of the UDHR states: “Everyone has the right to an education…”
Martin Luther King, Jr. was a pastor, activist, and leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. Mr. King was a man of honor and respect, even in the troubling situations of serving jail time. People who were supposed to support him questioned his actions, but Dr. King still stood by what he believed in. In Birmingham, Alabama, Dr. King hoped that the white religious leaders would come to his aid but instead found reluctance and opposition. In the “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, Martin Luther King, Jr. refutes his critics claims through the use of passionate tones, metaphors, and allusions.
Dr. Martin Luther King addressed many topics in, “Letter from Birmingham Jail”. He answered all the issues that were aimed towards him in a very skillful and well thought out manner. These issues came from, “A Call For Unity”, which was a letter published by eight local clergymen expressing their feelings about what Dr. King was doing. One concern in particular that King did an outstanding job of confronting was that of the clergymen’s anxiety about him breaking the law. King addresses the question of, “How can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others?” by clarifying that there are just and unjust laws. He also goes on to explain the difference between the two, the effect of unjust laws on the people that they are aimed towards, as
King writes the letter to defend his organization's actions and the letter is also an appeal to the people, both the white and black American society, the social, political, and religious community, and the whole of American society to encourage desegregation and encourage solidarity and equality among all Americans, with no stratifications according to racial differences. King's letter from Birmingham Jail addresses the American society, particularly the political and religious community of the American society.
Essay, Philosophy 115, St. Louis. University of California, Berkeley, 1995. Rottenburg, Anne. A. & Co. "Dr. Martin Luther King, Letter From a Birmingham
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. changed America with his non-violent campaigns during the civil rights movement. Although his campaigns consisted of morally legal protests, speeches, and marches, he was still sentenced to jail on multiple occasions due to unjust laws. In King's “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” he addresses the issues and injustices in Alabama with his responses to his fellow clergymen. King’s letter effectively uses Aristotle’s strategies of ethos (credibility), logos (logic), and pathos (emotions) to convince his readers that he is on the right side of these racial issues.
Marin Luther King Jr. intentionally appeals to his audiences from an emotional standpoint to convince them to join his anti-racist movement in his “I Have a Dream” speech and his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”.
Last year November I showed up to apply for a job, ironical another man of a different skin completion arrived at the same time. We sat there mentally preparing ourselves for the interview ahead of us for entry level job. The hiring manger walked in and he looked me and the other man over and said “Mr. Johnson come in let’s get your interview started.” I didn’t think anything of his going first so I waited. 15 minutes passed and the other candidate walks out with a smile on his face. Once again I didn’t think anything of it. Then it was my turn, my interview last maybe 3 minutes until the hiring manager told me the position had been filled, a position that was open less than 20 minutes ago. Was this fair? No, how did the man know that the other man was a better fit then I was without even giving me the same chance? I was given the short end of the stick for reasons illogical and immoral. This is a minor issue that opens the door to realize that the world is filled with injustice, immoral and arrogant abuse of power.
Nearly three centuries ago, black men and women from Africa were brought to America and put into slavery. They were treated more cruelly in the United States than in any other country that had practiced slavery. African Americans didn’t gain their freedom until after the Civil War, nearly one-hundred years later. Even though African Americans were freed and the constitution was amended to guarantee racial equality, they were still not treated the same as whites and were thought of as second class citizens. One man had the right idea on how to change America, Martin Luther King Jr. had the best philosophy for advancing civil rights, he preached nonviolence to express the need for change in America and he united both African Americans and whites together to fight for economic and social equality.