ABSTRACT
The Political Science Quarterly some time back contained two articles by John Dickinson on the theory of sovereignty, in one of which the author condemned Antigone for making the wrong decision. He contrasted what he called the “primitive attitude” of Antigone with the “mature comprehension” of Socrates. John Dickinson, accordingly, contrasts the behavior of Socrates who refused to disobey the law even to save his life, even though he was falsely condemned, with the attitude of Antigone who felt that she could take it to her own conscience to say whether or not she should obey. Dickinson used the same argument that King Creon used—the law is first and paramount. If we break the law deliberately, if we deliberately defy it, then we are voting for the dissolution of society, as it were. As Dickinson himself put it elsewhere, there is a “law behind law.”
