Civilization developed with trial and error and there were many historical impacts that changed how humans lived since government formed. Ever since the creation of a ‘civilization’, there were rules society had to follow due to punishments if not followed. Government was formed to hold together a civilization with codified laws. It is true that the establishment of a government with codified laws are necessary to advance into civilization. Without codified laws, there would not have been change for the underprivileged people, Civilizations wouldn’t be able to develop and savagery would be common in everyday life. The question is- how will changing laws for the underprivileged people make it necessary to have them in the first place? Slaves and women were underprivileged since they had less rights than the average nobleman. These people struggled to vote and get money to survive so groups like the Roman mob changed this by standing up for their rights so they could get equal treatment from the government. Without these …show more content…
An example of this is the Hammurabi Code. This code had almost 300 laws and had the ‘eye for an eye’ concept. This meant if you killed someone, someone would kill you. Some of the laws were unfair due to the punishments being taken off if you are in a high social class, but it still helped the Mesopotamian civilization by making the people think twice before committing a crime. All of these reasonings show how codified laws impacted life so vastly that the government creates and develops them today. There was a lot to work on in the past but these trials and errors made the laws what they are today. Underprivileged people gained rights, and savagery isn’t as common as how it used to be. Compared to this history, this civilization has advanced vastly with the help of codified laws that are necessary to keep a civilization
The Mesopotamian society existed in 3500 B.C., in what is today modern Iraq. This society created the first legal codes in human history; these codes created laws, but also were filled with inequality and social division. For example, the fine for rape in the Code of Ur-Nammu was only a mere five shekels. This small fine is insulting to women and would be unacceptable today. An example for inter-social class fairness, however is in Hammurabi’s Code. Law 200 states that if a man knocked out the tooth of another man of the same social standing, he should have his tooth knocked out as well. This legal code also had difficulties with proving crimes occurred, law number one in Hammurabi’s code is a prime example, it states that if one were to accuse a crime, had no evidence, he shall be put to death. The Mesopotamians added a lot to human history, but were discriminable against women, had an abundance of social class fairness, and had dilemmas prosecuting crimes.
Imagine a world without law, surrounded by anarchism and people who can do whatever they please. A world without law would result in a corrupt and unfair society, ruled by the authoritative elite. In the narrative, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, law is a major theme in society that controls the actions of the people and the destiny’s of the wrongdoers. A world without law is a world of chaos and calamity; therefore, laws are established to keep order and safety in the world that God created.
Imagine if someone you loved was shot. You call the cops, but they say that there is nothing that can be done because there are no laws saying they have to punish the criminal. If there were no laws, criminal could get away with crimes like that repeatedly without any punishment. This is a prime example of why laws are needed to keep society in order. The idea of rules in society has been around since King Hammurabi created the first set of laws in 1760 B.C. Egyptian civilizations created laws so that their society would last longer than other civilizations because people would respect their morals. William Golding, the author of Lord of the Flies, made a statement about human nature, saying that, “Man produces evil as a bee produces honey.” He had a theory that
Hammurabi’s code was not the first in regard to law codes but was the most complete including “an extensive prologue, 282 laws,” and an epilogue (Roth). Hammurabi’s laws were based on the principle of retribution, which addressed their dislike of over retaliation. Despite their clear emphasis of just punishment, “an eye for an eye,” consequences did vary between the classes. In extent, this idea of fair play would suggest that ancient Mesopotamian society was advanced in the sense that moral compasses were being developed. Also, Mesopotamian economy would have to be thriving in order for a people to begin constructing laws to promote a finer quality of living.
Civilization has continued to exist and grow because of the many institutions that exist within most individual cultures, such as art, religion, ethics, etc. I believe that the most important factor in the development of civilization and the biggest aid to the success of past societies is law. Law exists in every society that we have seen throughout this semester, whether it be from the earliest examples of written law like in The Code of Hamurabi, or in the most recent example we have seen in The Code of the Salian Franks. I will seek to analyze the examples of important laws that we have seen throughout developing society, and how they were integral to the growth of the civilization they were created in, including: The Code of Hamurabi, The
During the early days of the Roman empire, political and social strife was the bread and butter of Roman citizens, a daily struggle that on one hand the Roman aristocracy, or the Patricians, pretended wasn’t occurring. Whereas on the other hand the lower class, or the Plebeians, had no voice that could be heard on the matter, effectively rendering the social injustices overseen and untouched for a very long time. It was only after an intolerable tyrannic government under the rule of Tarquinius Superbus that the the entire populace decided enough was enough.
Law and order are something that has been around for a considerable length of time, one of our oldest established arrangements of law are Hammurabi's code it consists of 282 writing laws. Hammurabi’s Code was a set of laws that dictated the people of the ancient Babylonian society in 1750 B.C. In spite of the fact that these laws are from a long time ago, the code remains prominent and often applicable even today. The Code’s fundamental concept was “an eye for an eye” and this term has been utilized various perspectives. This guaranteed equity and it furthermore made a class structure, sex relationship, moral qualities and it incredibly influenced religion. Additionally, while some people may assert that the potency of this method was a despot and that some of the punishments allowed by the Code were exceedingly inequitable, the Babylonian society of that time saw it as the most methodic way to deal with the problem of crime without being excessively barbaric.
Many aspects of how the Roman’s treated their people affected how the people acted and lived. The upper class was very lazy and were often spoiled because of the amount of money they had. The Romans also went off of a theory that when you feed the people and entertain them they will be less likely to rise up against you. This would keep the people busy so they don’t realize all of the bad things that are happening
What is civilization? Civilization is relatively a large population, specialization, and regulation, etc. The partnership with the river valleys increased the large population, and specialization. The two early civilizations are Mesopotamia and Egypt, which brought consequences based on stability vs. inequality. A hierarchy is a “rule of a high priest” when King Hammurabi of Babylon took over Mesopotamian he accomplished a law and his law code which was called “Hammurabi’s Code” (1800 B.C.E) gave us a portion view of the daily life of the ancient urban society. Even though the law code gave us an idea of people’s justice as well as punishment and discrimination it was noted that they didn’t always write everything that was happening. Why write a law code? Law codes are easy to follow and keeps everyone on the same page, but it is clear people don’t always follow the rules. Moreover, the law code help people express their concerns about the society, it was clear that not because they had a concern everyone who in the community had the same concern. For example, a couple of laws that were mentioned in Hammurabi’s Code were “6. If a man steals valuables
As proven throughout all time periods in history, our ability as humans to function in a society is heavily dependent on organization, regulations, and cooperation amongst the individuals in a community. Even some of the most ancient civilizations such as the Mesopotamians who existed roughly between 5000-3500 BC kept certain set laws enabling them to construct a well ordered society. The Code of Hammurabi consisted of nearly 300 rules or more appropriately, “if and then” statements relating to crimes and their various punishments. The ancient Mesopotamians had a good sense of unlawful acts and although some disciplines were drastic most of them had equal retribution. For instance, the second law that was engraved on the eight-foot tall stela
One example of these ideas could be recognized by Hammurabi’s Code. As questioned by most, no one knows how theses law were enacted and how they truly did punish the law breakers. It can be guessed that unless you were an educated man, that the laws would be unknown and not understandable “..in ancient society, laws were written by the literate, powerful few”.
Every society has their own set of laws and their own set of consequences that go with those laws if they are broken. An example of these laws and punishments can be seen in the book “Things Fall Apart” by Chinua Achebe with the Igbo tribe. The Igbo tribe has several laws such as, human positive laws and divine laws, and the consequences for those laws.
Therefore the law creates an equal sized sphere for each individual and polices the boundaries to ensure the different spheres do not interfere with each other, this allows for what Pogge terms as co-ordination, determinacy and assurance. Essentially the state and law allow our natural rights of freedom and equality to be realised, as they could not be put into practice in the state of nature.
Every nation today has laws, instituted by the ruling class (throughout this essay, when I mention laws I am referring to legal laws, not moral laws). The
There are serval reasons why we need law in today’s society, for instance: To regulate society, as the traffic laws exist that enforce people drive in a safe manner; To protect people, as there are laws about food safety to ensure that the food we buy is safe to eat; And to enforce rights, since the criminals laws prevent or deter people from abuses other people.