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Full-Text Articles in Ethics and Political Philosophy
Political Obligation, Richard Dagger, David Lefkowitz
Political Obligation, Richard Dagger, David Lefkowitz
Political Science Faculty Publications
This essay begins, therefore, with a brief history of the problem of political obligation. It then turns, in Part II, to the conceptual questions raised by political obligation, such as what it means for an obligation to be political. In Part III the focus is on the skeptics, with particular attention to the self-proclaimed philosophical anarchists, who deny that political obligations exist yet do not want to abolish the state. Part IV surveys the leading contenders among the various theories of political obligation now on offer, and Part V concludes the essay with a brief consideration of recent proposals for …
Harm, Utility, And The Obligation To Obey The Law, Richard Dagger
Harm, Utility, And The Obligation To Obey The Law, Richard Dagger
Political Science Faculty Publications
In a recent essay, "Political Obligation", R. M. Hare sets out a utilitarian account of the obligation to obey the law which he believes to be immune to an objection often brought against such accounts. In what follows I shall briefly review this objection and Professor Hare's response to it; than I shall go on to argue that Hare's response, ingenious as it is, fails to defeat the objection. Hare's argument is instructive nonetheless, for its failure tells us something about wrongs and harm as well as utility and political obligation.