TEMAS DE CULTURA INGLESA

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TEMAS DE CULTURA INGLESA 2025-2026 CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE – FROM THOREAU TO THE AMERICAN CIVIL RIGHTS LECTURES SUMMARY GENERAL SUMMARY — CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE (UNITS 1–4) I. What is Civil Disobedience? Across all units, civil disobedience is defined as: • A deliberate, conscientious breach of law • Public and often nonviolent • Symbolic, meant to communicate moral seriousness • Accepts legal consequences to expose injustice (Rawls) • Aimed at changing laws, policies, or social norms Purposes • Protest unjust laws • Appeal to the conscience of the majority • Create public moral conflict • Mobilise collective action • Shift political, ethical, or cultural norms II. Genealogy of Civil Disobedience Civil disobedience has ancient and modern roots: 1. Socrates • Accepts death sentence; distinguishes legal order vs moral duty. 2. Antigone • Breaks the king’s law for sacred/familial obligation. 3. Enlightenment Thinkers • Locke: Right to resist tyranny. • Rousseau: Sovereignty of the people; resistance when rulers betray them. 4. Thoreau (1849) • Foundation of modern civil disobedience. • Government = “expedient”; conscience > law. • Refuses tax funding slavery & unjust war. 5. Gandhi (20th cent...