Is Mortality More Important Than Law?

Christian Taylor

September 29, 2017

Mr. Underwood

Philosophy 206

Short Paper

Is Mortality More Important Than Law?

        Sitting back observing people and their personal opinions on mortality and law I began to think of the case from my perspective. I generated a question from psychology last semester, “If a mother’s daughter is pregnant and her daughter is taking dangerous drugs, will the mother be morally right to force her daughter to seek help?” Well first, we will agree and say her mother is not obligated to make the daughter do anything if she refuses at this point. Is it fine for her to have her own opinion?Yes, it is fine with her showing her concern and trying to help her but once again there is nothing she can do by law without her daughter consent.  Now if we flip sides and she is in a medical facility and they offer her some type of treatment and she refuses she can possibly be able to approach a different protocol that would go thru some sort of law. “One can believe there are objective answers without knowing what they are or without holding that one's own answer is necessarily the right one, even if one is fairly confident in it.”(Garlikov)  Morality is subjective argument whereas law is objective argument in law.        However, if issues of morality are included in law it will be better which is visible in the acceptance of minimum content of natural law. So, why is mortality of equal importance with law?

Even if you have your own opinion about different eras you will not always be able to act and abide by those personal thoughts all the time. For a while, me personally I never understood why discussing mortality and law was one of the essentials in class. I knew that law was believed to be a collection of legal rules meant for determining people’s behavior. For instance, the state carries them into effect when someone infringes the rules. Without having no idea of mortality, morality on the other hand I found out was to imply rules of conduct connected with some kind of social and psychological qualities. In this case mortality has some effect on them but the stubborn ones make it slower. Although initially law can prevent them by sanction and insure more authority. The world cannot operate correctly without rule, meaning in order to have order there must be order.

In ancient Chinese philosophy in order to pursue a consistent and ordered society, Confucianism makes rules of virtue and Legalism to advance rule of law. People have now begun to think mortality leads them to be great fundamentally when thinking the law is advocate. So, with their perception they believe that mortality is more important than law. I have came to an conclusion that mortality and law can play two different sides, I also believe they are of equal importance. We are going to say if you were to think about a random case with mortality and law, or maybe the football players across the US kneeling during the anthem. Not everyone agree with their way of handling getting their point across about brutality and systematic racism. See here in this particular situation everyone has each of their own opinion. If it was in the hands of law it would be more of everyone have the right to express how they feel. In the case of this example mortality and law runs together tightly. You can voice your opinion about the “contradicting” situation, but it is a nonviolent protest and they are exercising their rights as giving. Well, that is just my cognition from overviewing the situation.

Confucius says, “If people are led by laws, and uniformity sought to be given them by punishments, they will try to avoid punishment, but have no sense of shame. If they led by virtue, and uniformity sought be given them by rules of propriety, they will have the sense of shame, and moreover will become good.” (Virtue Ethics and Guilt) I strongly can agree to the first sentence quoted from Confucius, it reveals the disadvantages of ruling by law. Also, it to me explains or expresses with law the people will abide by the rules, though they may express their own personal thoughts they will still do what is right to avoid punishment.