issue 21 求批改和意见

Laws should be flexible enough to take account of various circumstances, times, and places.


Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the statement and explain your reasoning for the position you take. In developing and supporting your position, you should consider ways in which the statement might or might not hold true and explain how these considerations shape your position.

————————————————————————————————————————————
Laws are solemn demands that stand for the justice. The equality nature of laws often leads people to a false impression that laws should be strictly monotonic in every occasion. But the truth is that laws should be adaptable to the very circumstances they applied to. Here, I would like to quote and paraphrase the reasoning from the famous philosopher Socrates: the laws stand for the justice, the justice indicates rightful actions, and rightful actions vary with the situations.
Take honesty as an example. To speak the truth seems to obey the law and moral standard in every circumstance. The honesty is a valuable virtue recognized by every society. Laws also include decrees that people should always speak for the truth, and on the contrary, if individuals lie or slander others, they will be punished and pay penalty. However, there are certain circumstances that lying would also be the rightful action and a virtue. Assume there is an old woman whose son just passed because of a terrible car accident. The woman is too old to be sensible and believe every word others told her. Thus, it would be the better if we lied to her that her son is still alive and just too busy to visit her rather than giving her the cold truth that her son is nothing more than a hideous corpse. The lie would grant her a peaceful mood to live the rest of her life. In this circumstance, if someone deliberately informs the old woman the truth and causes her to die or become ill because of extreme melancholy, he would like to be punished and take the responsibility of the bad consequence of the honesty. In this case, the honesty does not demonstrate virtue but implies the informer's unreasonable character. Thus, laws will punish the honest person rather than protect him.
Though laws require certain flexibility, it is important to note that the standard of judging rightful action should be coherent. As I mentioned before, laws stand for the justice and justice indicates rightful actions. Right actions should always stand for the reason which means they can be justified. Right actions should always be beneficial to the public and individuals but not merely to personal interest. The standards to determine the rightful actions should always base on morality and reason, or flexibility nature of laws would be utilized by evil parties as an excuse to justify their wrongdoings.
In conclusion, the general nature of laws, which is the rightful action, should be defended in any situation. However, the substantial form under a specific circumstance may vary and should be carefully examined to proffer a sound judgment.