Abstract

This dissertation probes the essence of civil disobedience, primarily by investigating the thought and practice of its greatest proponents--the archetypal figures of Antigone, Socrates, Thoreau, Gandhi and King. In response to the theoretical confusion besetting modern theory, this work returns to the etymological roots of civil disobedience, and to the original foundations of the practice. ;This etymological analysis discloses the open receptivity and willful closure that are the dialectical grounds of disobedience and the being-with-others that is the basis of civility, while the foundational inquiry uncovers the interplay of these dialectical forces in two highly conflictual settings--those of Antigone and the trial of Socrates. This examination displays the destructive potential of adamant, willful closure as manifest in the obsessive, one-sided idealism of antagonistic opponents. These preliminary investigations also reveal the possibility of reconciliation through redemptive reintegration--but only by way of open receptivity and love. ;Finally, this dissertation explores the lives and thought of the great practitioners of modern civil disobedience. These studies further highlight the interplay of opposing forces, while disclosing an increasingly instrumental understanding of civil disobedience and an evermore expansive scope of personal responsibility for social injustice. ;In conclusion, this work intimates the gravity of the fall of man into technological thoughtlessness, and questions whether the legalization of civil disobedience represents a moral rejuvenation of law, or rather, the further fall of man