Dagger's Argument From Fair Play Analysis

Dagger argues that the argument from membership is flawed and that the argument from fair play is superior to it when considering the political obligation of residents to obey the laws of a state. I agree with Dagger on his point that the argument from fair play is superior, but I do believe that certain residents of the United States are obligated to follow the laws on the grounds of the argument from membership as well. For the purposes of my argument, when I say immigrant I am referring to people who were not born in the United States but who have moved here of their own free will. Refugees are people who have moved to the United States to escape war or religious/political persecution. Refugees are not a part of the group that I will refer …show more content…
Nonetheless, the argument from fair play is more pertinent, because it applies to a broader span of people and there are less exceptions. However, even with the argument from fair play, we must take into consideration the fact that refugees are not truly consenting to benefit from things such as traffic signals. However, since they are present in the United States, and because other people are cooperating, thereby benefitting the refugees, they are also obligated to follow the laws. Their consent is not required, because based on the argument from fair play simply benefitting from the laws automatically generates a moral obligation to follow those laws, regardless of circumstance. Yet, the obligation is only automatically generated in light of a “just, mutually beneficial cooperative practice”. This means that the society must be mutually beneficial – thereby excluding oppressive governments. In the case of refugees, they most likely left an unjust society to come to the United States where they would be obligated to obey the laws. One can also argue that refugees did indeed consent to obey the laws of the state that they flee to, simply because they chose to move there. However, many times refugees do not have the freedom to choose where they go to flee persecution or war. Refugees simply go where they feel they will be safe – they don’t get to research the countries and decide if they really like …show more content…
Some US citizens may, however, feel that they are not accepted into the United States’ family and therefore their obligation to obey the laws based on the argument from membership is void. Yet, residents of the United States who do feel as if they are a part of the American family are absolutely obligated to follow the laws of