A Short History of Ethics

Ethics, also known as moral philosophy, is a branch of philosophy that addresses questions about morality — that is, concepts such as good and evil, right and wrong, virtue and vice, justice and crime, etc. There has been a very wide range of views on the question among different civilizations and among different philosophers.

The Moral Intellectualism of Socrates

Socrates was a Greek philosopher, born in 469 BC. He was predominantly interested in Ethics and is considered the father of moral intellectualism.

Moral intellectualism can be explained as follows: only if we know what is right can we act right, only if we know what is just can we act justly. Therefore, virtue is knowledge (of what is good and bad). Knowledge is, then, sought as a means to ethical action. When people act immorally, they do not do so deliberately; they do it because they are ignorants. According to Socrates, knowledge is sufficient for being virtuous and virtue is sufficient for being happy. Self-knowledge is the sufficient condition to the good life. Our true happiness is promoted by doing what is right.

Knowledge = virtue, good

Ignorance = bad, evil, not useful

He also said that it is better to suffer injustice than to do it, as doing injustice damages our soul. Our convictions seem contrary to moral intellectualism, as we believe that someone may know something is wrong and yet do it. For moral intellectualism, perfection is a consequence of the perfection of the intellect or reason.

Aristotle’s Eudaimonia

Aristotle was born in 384 BC. He was a Greek philosopher, a polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great.

He taught that virtue has to do with the proper function of a thing. An eye is only a good eye as it can see, because the proper function of an eye is sight. He reasoned that humans must have a specific function to humans, and this function must be an activity of the soul, in accordance with reason. Aristotle identified such an optimum activity of the soul as the aim of all human deliberate action, eudaimonia, generally translated as “happiness” or sometimes “well being”. To have the potential of ever being happy in this way necessarily requires a good character or moral/ethical virtue.

The Greek term eudaimon is composed of two parts: eu means “well” and daimon means “divinity” or “spirit”. To be eudaimon is therefore to be living in a way that is well-favoured by a god. But Aristotle never pays attention to this etymology, and it seems to have little influence on his thinking. He regards eudaimon as a mere substitute for “living well”. These terms are not simply descriptions of someone’s state of mind, but they play an evaluative role: they give you an idea about what actions are correct.

Aristotle presents eudaimonia as the highest human end. Aristotle asserts that above the particular goods such as money and health there is another type of good that is good in itself. This higher good is the cause of whatever goodness there is in all other (particular) goods. Aristotle labels this higher good eudaimonia. He roughly equates eudaimonia with happiness, which he identifies with living or doing well. Eudaimonia is a first principle, therefore everything else we undertake we do for its sake.

Aristotle’s search for the good is a search for the highest good, and he assumes that the highest good, whatever it turns out to be, has three characteristics: it is desirable for itself, it is not desirable for the sake of some other good, and all other goods are desirable for its sake.

Aristotle also establishes the doctrine of the mean to help us understand which qualities are virtues. According to this doctrine, every ethical virtue is a condition intermediate between two other states, one involving excess, and the other deficiency. The courageous person, for example, judges that some dangers are worth facing and others not, and experiences fear to a degree that is appropriate to his circumstances. He lies between the coward, who flees every danger and experiences excessive fear, and the rash person, who judges every danger worth facing and experiences little or no fear. Aristotle is careful to add, however, that the mean is to be determined in a way that takes into account the particular circumstances of the individual. Once we see that temperance, courage and other generally recognised characteristics are mean states, we are in a position to generalise and to identify other mean states as virtues.

Epicurean Hedonism

Epicurus of Samos, born in 341 BC, founded his school, The Garden, in Athens.

Epicurus’ philosophy is based on the theory that all good and bad derive from the sensations of pleasure and pain. What is good is what is pleasurable and what is bad is what is painful. Then, this is the basis for moral distinction between good and bad.

The good life for Epicurus is the result of the pursuit of pleasure and therefore his ethics is called hedonism (hedoné means pleasure in Greek). But he points out that we must seek pleasures which endure throughout a life-time, not momentary pleasures. Examples: intellectual pleasure, serenity of soul, health of body. He also distinguished between higher and lower pleasures:

• Higher pleasures: pleasures of the mind -intellectual and aesthetic.

• Lower pleasures: pleasures of the body -food, drink, and sex.

We must pursue the higher pleasures most preferably, so we can reach the tranquility of soul. Even though every pain is evil and pleasure good, Epicurean hedonism is meant to result in a calm and tranquil life, not libertinism, overindulgence or excess. Peace of mind and mental well-being is achieved through philosophy

Epicurus also put great stress on friendship because one’s own pleasure is dependent on others too.

He also believed we should not fear death. The fear of death only arises from the belief that in death there is awareness. But he argues that when a man dies, he does not feel the pain of death because he no longer is, and he therefore feels nothing. As Epicurus said, “death is nothing to us”. When we exist, death is not, and when death exists, we are not.  

The Futurist Manifesto

The futurist manifesto from RFdezM



Here's a selection of Futurist poems by students in 4ºA:


Some machinery are made
To destroy things
Without mercy,
Recklessly, fearless.

                          Giovanni van der Heide



Your speed
Breaks me
And your acceleration
Kills my intention.
Your car runs a lot
And I fall to the floor.

                       Yolanda Alonso Antequera



Cars and motorbikes go at high speed,
Their acceleration is a danger.
Don't be aggresive, don't destroy yourself,
Don't be reckless, so you don't need to lose your youth
And get death.

                      María Nielsen Rojo

THE ECONOMY AND THE WORLD’S GREATEST PROBLEMS

Human beings need a number of things in order to survive: food, clothing, housing. Economics is a science devoted to the study of everything in relation to these necessary goods. The words economy and Economics come from the Ancient Greek οἶκος (house) and νομός (norm, government).

Thinking about money, work, how to get a place to live, how to make ends meet, are often a source of anxiety for most people. Ethics, as a discipline involved in human beings’ happiness and dignity, must address these problems affecting so many people in such a deep way.

As Economics is a science devoted to the administration of necessary goods, it is only of those goods that are scarce and need to be paid for. If there were an endless supply of these goods then Economics would be unnecessary. On the other hand, there are goods, like love or talent, which are not economic goods, as they cannot be sold or bought. We cannot sell or buy human beings either. Setting the limits of economic and non-economic goods is one of the tasks of Ethics.

Fundamentals of Economics that all citizens should know

Economy issues –money, work, savings, debts, businesses and mortgages- are very important in our lives. It is therefore necessary that all citizens have clear notions about how the economy works. Lots of political debates both on TV and the press deal with these issues and, if we do not understand them, then we cannot act as responsible citizens.

What is money? It can be anything people want it to be –literally. It is easy to think of money as pound notes or euro coins, but money is anything that a majority of people can agree on as a means of exchange. If enough people in one town are willing to accept doughnuts as money, then doughnuts are money -at least for the people in that town. They might run into trouble when they try to spend those doughnuts in other towns, however.

Before coins or paper money, people exchanged (traded) fish for stone tools or leather goods for wood. This method of exchanging one thing for something else is called barter. It is still in use today: Sue might agree to fix David’s electrical wiring if David agrees to figure Sue's income tax. They've exchanged services, not goods, but they've still bartered.

The difference between barter and money is the situation. Money can be used in most situations; in the case of barter, each individual must have something to exchange that the other individual needs or wants. Sue and David can agree to swap electrical work for accounting, but Harold, another accountant, might insist on being paid in dollars and cents. Harold may not need any electrical work done, and he can spend dollars anywhere.

Supply and Demand

Two of the most basic concepts in Economics are supply and demand. These are really two separate things, but they are almost always talked about together.

Supply is how much of something is available. For example, if you’ve got 9 CDs, then your supply of CDs is 9. If you’ve got 6 apples, then your supply of apples is 6.

Demand is how much of something people want. It sounds a little bit harder to measure, but it really isn’t. To measure demand we can use a very simple numbering system, just like the supply one. If 8 people want CDs, then we can say that the demand for CDs is 8. If 6 people want apples, then we can say that the demand for apples is 6.

Did you notice that the CDs supply was one more than the CDs demand? Did you also notice that the apples supply was equal than the apples demand? We’ll get to that in a minute.

Let’s see how supply and demand in a market interact to determine how much of something is sold and bought, and what the price is.

The crucial ideas are that supply and demand are determined separately. The sellers determine the supply. The buyers determine the demand. In a free competitive market, the price of whatever it is moves up or down until the amount supplied equals the amount demanded. When the price stops moving, you have what is called equilibrium.

Excess demand is the amount demanded minus the amount supplied. If excess demand is negative, the amount supplied is bigger than the amount demanded, and you have excess supply.

Excess demand and excess supply are important because they encourage competition that tends to make the price change. Excess demand tends to induce competition among the buyers that forces prices up. Excess supply tends to induce competition among the sellers that forces prices down. Equilibrium is reached when there is no tendency for the price to move either way. At equilibrium there is no excess demand or excess supply.

Higher demand makes both the price and the quantity sold go up. Lower demand makes both the price and the quantity fall. Also, when price falls, demand increases.

This continues to happen until, the quantity supplied equals demand. This method generally works for most commodities, because the suppliers could store the commodity for future use. Also the general assumption is that at a price of 0 (dollars, euros or pounds), the demand is infinite.

COMPREHENSION ACTIVITIES

1. What is Economics?
2. Where do the words economy and Economics come from?
3. Explain the relationship between Ethics and the economy.
4. What is the task of Ethics in the field of Economics?
5. What was the economic method before the invention of money? How does this method work? Do people still use this method nowadays? Give an example.
6. Explain the concepts of supply and demand in your own words and give examples.
7. Explain the concept of equilibrium.
8. Give an example of how at the price of 0, the demand is infinite.

State capitalism vs. free market

A free market is a market structure in which the distribution and costs of goods and services, wage rates, interest rates are coordinated by supply and demand with no external regulation or control by government or monopolies. A free market contrasts with a controlled market or regulated market, in which government policy intervenes in the setting of prices. An economy composed entirely of free markets is referred to as a free-market economy. It can also be called liberal economy or free capitalism.

For much of the past 40 years, the long-running, 20th-century contest between state and market had appeared settled. The strong, post-Reagan economic performance of the U.S. based on deregulation and free market appeared to confirm the virtues of liberal economic policies, while the collapse of the Soviet Union and the capitalist revolution in China proclaimed the death of state-dominated systems. Free capitalism had emerged a clear winner.

Or so it seemed. After the 2008 financial crisis, the debate over the proper role of the state in a modern economy has been reopened. In the U.S., President Barack Obama promotes more active government policy to create jobs. In Europe, politicians are grappling with how to regain competitiveness through liberalisation while still maintaining the extensive social protection of their welfare states.

There appears now to be a crisis of capitalism because our economic model cannot produce sustainable growth, adequate income or employment creation.

Emerging markets like China, however, have generally maintained their growth despite the devastating global downturn. So as the market economies of the West fail, some have asked if “state capitalism,” that mix of market forces and state control, can produce better economic results.

Mixed economy is an economic system in which both the state and private sector direct the economy, reflecting characteristics of both market economies and planned economies.

Unlike in a free-market economy, the government would have considerable indirect influence over the economy through fiscal and monetary policies designed to counteract economic downturns and capitalism's tendency toward financial crises and unemployment, along with playing a role in interventions that promote social welfare.

In Spain there is a mixed economy and it is recognised as such in our Constitution. 

Businesses and Ethics: Social Responsibility

Over the past few decades, social responsibility has become an increasingly important topic of discussion in all aspects of life in the United States. Although nearly everyone has an intuitive idea of what it means to be socially responsible, there is no hard and fast definition of this term. Normally, people try to be socially responsible by doing what they think is the most beneficial to others in a given situation. For an average individual, practicing social responsibility could mean recycling, picking up after your dog, driving a fuel efficient car or taking public transportation whenever possible, or being honest with others.

Social responsibility extends beyond individuals to larger entities like businesses. Social responsibility is becoming more and more important in the business world these days, both because socially responsible actions are the right action and because businesspeople are finding that social responsibility is profitable. In many cases, consumers and investors alike are more likely to support companies who have a reputation for being socially responsible. Thus, large companies who pursue socially responsible courses of action could end up on top in competitive markets.

Investors and consumers alike are interested in making sure that the companies they support are doing the right thing for the environment and for society.

Some organisations like Greenpeace keep watch over businesses who do not comply with environmental regulations. Greenpeace campaigns are very strong and can make big corporations rectify.

The World’s Greatest Problems

In a survey carried out by Eurobarometer EU citizens were asked to rank which problem they thought constituted the biggest threat to the world. The survey was conducted in June 2011 and it shows the top 10 biggest problems in the world for Europeans. Here is what they were most concerned about:

Number 10- Not a Clue

Two percent of the people surveyed said they're still thinking about what the world's biggest problem is. They answered that they simply didn't know.

Number 9 - Proliferation Of Nuclear Weapons.

Three percent of the EU considered the proliferation of nuclear weapons the one thing that is going to bring the world to destruction. The numbers seemed to be higher in South-East Europe, with Cyprus, Bulgaria and Greece among the most concerned.

Tied Number 7 - Armed Conflict

Four percent of the EU believe that war is the biggest problem. The fear is highest in the Balkans, with Bulgaria the most concerned nation. Latvians and Estonians are also fearful.

Tied Number 7 - Spread Of Infectious Disease

Four percent are terrified that a global epidemic will wipe out mankind. The Czech Republic and neighbouring Slovakia are the countries most concerned.

Number 6 - The Increasing Global Population

Five percent of the EU believe there is not enough room in this world for everyone. Scandinavia is particularly concerned about population growth with Sweden being the most afraid nation.

Number 5 - Availability Of Energy

Seven percent of Europe fears a global blackout. The concern about the availability of energy was expressed most vigorously in Germany and Italy. It is no coincidence that they are two nations that make some of the world's finest automobiles.

Number 4 - International Terrorism

Eleven percent are most fearful of an international terrorist threat. Bulgarians seem the most concerned about an attack, while Denmark, Czech Republic and Slovakia are also very afraid.

Number 3 - The Economic Situation

It is surprising that this is not at the top of the list. Only 16 percent of Europe believes that the globe's economy is its single biggest problem today. Less surprising is that Greece is the most concerned European nation when it comes to economic matters.

Number 2 - Climate Change

Twenty percent of Europe think that climate change is the world's biggest problem. Sweden and Luxembourg were the most concerned nations, but the Portuguese have other problems; only seven percent of Portugal thought climate change was a global issue.

And Number 1 - Poverty, Hunger And Lack Of Drinking Water

Twenty-eight percent of the EU said that poverty, hunger and lack of drinking water represented the biggest problem for the world.

ACTIVITIES

1. Explain the difference between free market and state market.
2. What type of economy is the Spanish one? Give details.
3. State three things you can do to act as a responsible citizen.
4. Write a composition about the problems in the world that worry you the most (100 words).

CHECK YOUR NEW VOCABULARY

Form full sentences using the words below:

Economics, supply, demand, savings, debts, mortgage, barter, commodities, free-market, mixed economy, state-dominated system, sustainable growth, welfare states, income, unemployment, social responsibility, recycling, fuel efficient, profitable, consumers, investors, nuclear weapons, climate change, global issues.

5 Examples of Civil Disobedience to Remember

Civil disobedience from RFdezM

3ºESO Projects

The students in 3ºA & 3ºB have been working on a project for Citizenship.  They have carried out some interviews in relation to NGOs and associations based in Nerja and, as part of this project, they have made some videos with their findings.  You can find those below:

3ºA:

Alejandro Portillo Zorrilla
Candela Granadino Quesada
Rebeca Jaime Rodríguez

Gema Martín Ruiz
Tania Agudo González
Rocío Bueno López
Nuria Mª Rubio Cerezo

Luis Miguel Moreno Ortega
Lorenzo M. Hermoso Moreno
Alejandro García Reyes
Mario Ortega Ramos

Miguel Rodríguez Figueroa
Mª del Mar Medina Ortega
Elena Mª Muñoz Villena
Lara Fernández Acosta
Yeray Herrero Rojo

Paula Piñero Maura
Marina Armijo Sánchez
Lara Herrero García
Mª Natalia Gómez Balsera

E. Rosa Van der Heide
Alba Claros Muñoz
Míriam L. Diestro Collins
Luís Manuel Gallardo Álvarez

3ºB

Nicolás Álvarez García
Marzé F. del Toro González
Alicia Hernando Delgado
Carlos Garrido Wassink







Marco Arrabal Centurión
Natalia Herrero Acosta
Carlos del Corral López
Álvaro Carrillo de Albornoz Díaz

Julia Carmona Moreno
Amara Martín Martín
Celia Ramos Fernández
Sara Jiménez Jiménez
Raquel Valverde Arrebola

Elena Torres Molero
Mª Elisabeth Buchanan Cobos

Angira Badmaeva
Gloria Muñoz González
Ainhoa Bueno Guerrero
Mª Ángeles Fernández Callejón

Three Generations of Human Rights

First Generation (Civil and Political Rights)

These rights date back to the 18th Century.

They were designed to protect the individual against state interference.

• Right to vote
• Right to assemble

• Right to free speech
• Right to a fair trial
• Right to freedom from torture, abuse
• Right to protection of the law

Second Generation (Economic, Social and Cultural Rights)

They came up as a response to widespread poverty in the wake of industrial revolution in the 19th Century.

These rights entitle individuals to get protection from the state if third parties interfere with rights.

They oblige states to take measures to improve the overall social situation.

• Right to education
• Right to housing
• Right to health
• Right to employment
• Right to an adequate income
• Right to social security

Third Generation (Collective Rights)

They were first articulated in the second half of the 20th Century.

With the exception of the African Charter on Human and People's Rights, they have not been incorporated into human rights treaties yet.

• Right to economic development
• Right to prosperity
• Right to benefit from economic growth
• Right to social harmony
• Right to a healthy environment, clean air and water, etc.

Source: www.stockton.edu

The Suffragettes

At the end of 19^th century British women wanted the vote. It was the only way to change their lives. In 1897 a group called the Suffragists tried to get the vote. They believed in peaceful methods but they achieved very little and did not get the vote.

In 1903 the Pankhursts started the

Suffragettes. They were Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters Christabel and Sylvia. The Suffragettes used more violent methods, like hurling rocks at the windows of the Prime Minister's home, so they soon got arrested. In prison the women went on hungerstrike. At first they were forcefed. But the government were accused of harming them. When the women were near death they were let out of prison, but when they were better they were re-arrested. The Suffragettes fought on. Then on Derby Day June 1913 Emily Wilding Davison threw herself in front of the king's horse. She died and became a Suffragette martyr. In spite of all this they still got no votes for women.

Then in 1914 came World War I. Women took over the jobs that men have left behind and proved that they could do just as well as men. In 1918 after the war finished women over 30 years old were given the vote. Then in 1927 all women over 21 years old got the vote. Success at last!

In 1919 Nancy Astor was the first woman MP in Britain. In 1979 Margaret Thatcher became the first and only woman Prime Minister – so far!

1- Questions:

a) Who were the Suffragists?

b) Did they achieve their objective? Why?

c) When were the Suffragettes started and by whom?

d) Who were Christabel and Sylvia Pankhurst?

e) Did they use the same methods as the Suffragists?

f) What was the immediate consequence of their methods?

g) Did they stop fighting?

2- Match dates and events:

1913	World War I started.
1914	Nancy Astor was the first woman MP in Britain.
1918	Margaret Thatcher became the first and only woman Prime Minister so far.
1919	Emily Wilding Davison threw herself in front of the king's horse on Derby Day and died.
1927	World War I finished and women over 30 years old were given the vote.
1979	All women over 21 years old got the vote.

3- Check the new vocabulary and form sentences:

to vote/vote: votar, voto

peaceful: pacífico,-a

hungerstrike: huelga de hambre

to forcefeed/forcefed: alimentar a la fuerza/alimentado,-a a la fuerza

martyr: mártir

in spite of: a pesar de

MP(Member of Parliament): diputado,-a

Information taken from hawthornhistory (YouTube) and wikipedia.

Rights and Duties in the Spanish Constitution of 1978

The Spanish Constitution is the fundamental law of the Kingdom of Spain. It was enacted after the 1978 referendum, as part of the Spanish transition to democracy. It was preceded by many previous constitutions of Spain.

There is a part in our Constitution called “Rights and Duties of Spaniards” which is based in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.  This does not mean that all rights are complied with, but at least, if they are not, we can denounce it to Court.  In Spain, rights related to equal opportunities or to having a job and housing, for instance, have a special treatment as they are guaranteed only if the state's budget allows it.  But the government has the moral obligation to protect them.  When there is conflict between rights it must be solved by Court.  Let's see some examples of conflict:

Freedom of speech is the right to communicate one's opinions and ideas. The term freedom of expression is sometimes used synonymously, and includes any act of seeking, receiving and imparting information or ideas, regardless of the medium used. In practice, the right to freedom of speech is not absolute in any country and the right is commonly subject to limitations, as with libel, slander,  sedition  (including, for example inciting ethnic hatred), copyright violation, revelation of classified information  or otherwise .

Slander: Oral communication of false statements injurious to a person's reputation.  A false and malicious statement or report about someone.  Any false or defamatory words spoken or gestures made about a person; calumny.

Libel:  A false publication, as in writing, print, signs, or pictures that damages a person's reputation. 

Honour: The condition of being esteemed or respected or well regarded.  One person's good reputation.  Damaging people's honour by means of slander or libel is an offence that may require a civil or even penal process in order to restore the honour of the offended person by the payment of a fine or some other form of compensation.

Sedition: Speech or behaviour directed against the peace of a state.  An offence that tends to undermine the authority of a state.  An incitement to public disorder.  Publicly defending violent or discriminatory attitudes, terrorism or racism is considered as sedition.

Censorship is the suppression of speech or other public communication which may be considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or inconvenient as determined by a government, media outlet, or other controlling body.   It occurs in a variety of different contexts including speech, books, music, films and other arts, the press, radio, television, and the Internet for a variety of reasons including national security, to control obscenity, child pornography, and hate speech, to protect children, to promote or restrict political or religious views, to prevent slander and libel, and to protect intellectual property. It may or may not be legal. Many countries provide strong protections against censorship by law, but none of these protections are absolute and it is frequently necessary to balance conflicting rights in order to determine what can and cannot be censored.  In Spain, censorship before publication is forbidden by law, but publications can be withdrawn or retired from circulation by a court order when the content is considered to incur offences like libel, sedition or an offence against honour, right to privacy, etc.

Right to privacy: All people have the right to enjoy their own privacy and their family's privacy.  The right to privacy is the right to be let alone, in the absence of some "reasonable" public interest in a person's activities, like those of celebrities or participants in newsworthy events. Invasion of the right to privacy can be the basis for a lawsuit for damages against the person or entity violating the right.  The right to privacy and the right to information are considered to be Fundamental Rights by the Spanish Constitution. The former is enshrined in Article 18.1 and the latter in Article 20.1.d. However, each right limits the other and litigation will normally occur when a party claims the enforcement of one of these rights against another party claiming a defence based on the other right. In such a case, it is up to the court to find the correct balance between the two rights in question.

Civil disobedience: is the active refusal to obey certain laws, demands and commands of a government based on the belief that there are sufficient moral reasons for those laws to be reformed or abolished.  Civil disobedience is commonly defined as being non-violent resistance.  It has been used throughout history as a political resort, for instance, by Gandhi in his fight against British colonisation in India, and by Martin Luther King in his fight against race discrimination in the USA.  Other examples of disobedience are military disobedience (refusal to comply with the military service), fiscal disobedience (refusal to pay some taxes) and squatting (occupying an abandoned or unoccupied building or land that the squatter does not own, rent or otherwise has lawful permission to use).  When civil disobedience is carried out by a high number of citizens this contributes to governments reforming laws.  In his Dictionary of Ethics, O. Höffe points out that civil disobedience must comply with the following requirements:

ñ    It must follow political or moral reasons

ñ    It must be expressed publicly

ñ    It must be carried out in a non-violent way

ñ    It must be about Human Rights

Conscientious objection: Refusing to act against our own moral, religious or philosophical ideas.  Conscientious objection is the moral justification for civil disobedience.

NOW SOME ACTIVITIES

1       True or false?

a        The Constitution of 1978 was the first Spanish Constitution.

b       “Rights and Duties of Spaniards” is a part in the Spanish Constitution.

c        The state has no moral obligation towards the right to have a house to live in.

d       The right to freedom of speech is absolute in all countries.

e        Copyright violation and revelation of classified information are permitted in Spain.

f         Damaging people’s honour is an offence that may require a civil or penal process.

g        In Spain, publications containing child pornography can be retired from circulation.

h       When the right to privacy and the right to information clash, it is up to the court to establish a balance between the two.

i          Civil disobedience is commonly a violent act.

j          Squatting is an example of civil disobedience.

2        Match each expression in English with one possible translation in Spanish.

Duties, conscientious objection, freedom of speech, copyright, slander, revelation of classified information, fine, honour, censorship,  budget, right to privacy, lawsuit for damages, civil disobedience, libel, squatter, offence, sedition.

Reputación, deberes, presupuesto, libertad de expresión, derechos de autor, difamación, calumnia, apología del terrorismo, revelación de documento secreto, multa, censura, delito, derecho a la intimidad, demanda por daños y perjuicios, desobediencia civil, okupa, objeción de conciencia.

3        Think of some examples of civil disobedience in recent times in Spain and discuss in pairs.  Then write down the outcome of your discussion.

4       Work in pairs and think of one example of conflict between rights that has taken place recently and explain the case to the whole class.

5        Copy the four requirements, according to Höffe, for an act to be considered civil disobedience.

6        Translate into Spanish the paragraph about civil disobedience.

7        Write an example of conscientious objection in our country or abroad.