CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE: UNDERSTANDING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE ONE AND THE MANY

July 14–20, 2024 | Santa Fe, NM

How do we understand the tension between the rights of an individual living in a society and the duties and responsibilities owed by the individual to that society? What is the individual’s relationship to authority? When are we justified in breaking the law, and when does the law require of us that we sacrifice our personal preferences, perhaps even our liberty? If liberty is provided to us by the society in which we live, does the state have the right to take that liberty away from us? Is resistance in the form of civil disobedience justified in the interest of higher causes, such as civil rights? Does the state have the right to curtail things like freedom of speech, freedom of thought, and freedom of religion in the interests of public safety and security? We will explore these questions through a range of texts and speeches, literary, philosophic, political, and scientific, as well as film and scientific experimentation. Our goal is to come to a deeper understanding of the relationship between the one and the many in our modern society. How do we balance individual conviction with our public responsibilities? How do we live with and respect others while maintaining our personal liberties?

Readings include Antigone, The Life of Cato, Crito, speeches by Malcom X and Martin Luther King, Jr., and more

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