Balance between freedom and authority
BALANCE BETWEEN FREEDOM AND AUTHORITY
The great challenge of social and political ethics is to find a balance between individual liberties and governmental authority. How do we ensure that individual citizens are treated with justice and equity while also providing for the security and order of society as a whole? The social contract theorists have offered a framework within which most of us are likely to view these issues, but how does it apply to concrete situations?
In your initial post for this discussion, identify a specific example where the balance between freedom and social interests seems especially tricky.
RESPONSE GUIDELINES
We are likely to discover some significant disagreements on this one, but at this point in the course, we have plenty of practice at engaging in moral discourse productively, with mutual respect. So let us think through this together respectfully.
RESOURCES
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Americans are united in the faith that all individuals have certain absolute civil or constitutional rights. Paramount among the rights, as penned by President Thomas Jefferson is the right to life, freedom and the quest for happiness. Simultaneously Americans morals, ethics and standards are deeply entrenched in a firm sense of society, as reflected in the national motto:
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