PHILOS 1B03 Lecture Notes - Henry David Thoreau
Document Summary
Conscientious refusal: a refusal to participate in some action the state mandates as obligatory (rather than committing an action that is in violation of some state issued rule, e. g. , refusing to go to war upon being conscripted; a refusal to pay one"s taxes on moral grounds (thoreau, tactic, by refusing to participate in some state activity that one considers to be morally wrong (e. g. , fighting in a war), the agent can be assured that his hands are clean" of that moral wrong. ) the existing form of government; or: c. ) both, e. g. , the october revolution; the arab spring protest movements; the recent protest movement in kyiv, tactic: start again, not to improve upon an already reasonably just situation, but to tear down and, something about the existing regime (e. g. , the ukraine) or about the existing form of government (e. g. , libya) is intolerable and must therefore be completely abandoned and replaced.