Resistance to Civil Government (Civil Disobedience)
E133553
"Resistance to Civil Government" (commonly known as "Civil Disobedience") is an 1849 essay by Henry David Thoreau that argues individuals should not permit governments to overrule their consciences and have a duty to resist unjust laws.
All labels observed (4)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Civil Disobedience | 1 |
| On the Duty of Civil Disobedience | 1 |
| Resistance to Civil Government | 1 |
| Resistance to Civil Government (Civil Disobedience) canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T1164465 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Resistance to Civil Government (Civil Disobedience) Context triple: [Concord, Massachusetts, associatedWork, Resistance to Civil Government (Civil Disobedience)]
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A.
The Man Versus the State
The Man Versus the State is a political philosophy book by Herbert Spencer that critiques government intervention and defends individual liberty and limited state power.
-
B.
A Fragment on Government
A Fragment on Government is an influential 1776 political treatise by Jeremy Bentham that critiques William Blackstone’s Commentaries and lays early foundations for utilitarian legal and political theory.
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C.
Freedom and Resentment
Freedom and Resentment is a landmark philosophical essay by P. F. Strawson that reshaped debates on moral responsibility by emphasizing the role of our interpersonal reactive attitudes over metaphysical theories of free will.
-
D.
The Kingdom of God Is Within You
The Kingdom of God Is Within You is a non-fiction work by Leo Tolstoy that expounds his Christian anarchist philosophy and advocacy of nonviolent resistance.
-
E.
Four Essays on Liberty
Four Essays on Liberty is a collection of political philosophy essays by Isaiah Berlin that explores concepts of freedom, particularly his influential distinction between negative and positive liberty.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Resistance to Civil Government (Civil Disobedience) Target entity description: "Resistance to Civil Government" (commonly known as "Civil Disobedience") is an 1849 essay by Henry David Thoreau that argues individuals should not permit governments to overrule their consciences and have a duty to resist unjust laws.
-
A.
The Man Versus the State
The Man Versus the State is a political philosophy book by Herbert Spencer that critiques government intervention and defends individual liberty and limited state power.
-
B.
A Fragment on Government
A Fragment on Government is an influential 1776 political treatise by Jeremy Bentham that critiques William Blackstone’s Commentaries and lays early foundations for utilitarian legal and political theory.
-
C.
Freedom and Resentment
Freedom and Resentment is a landmark philosophical essay by P. F. Strawson that reshaped debates on moral responsibility by emphasizing the role of our interpersonal reactive attitudes over metaphysical theories of free will.
-
D.
The Kingdom of God Is Within You
The Kingdom of God Is Within You is a non-fiction work by Leo Tolstoy that expounds his Christian anarchist philosophy and advocacy of nonviolent resistance.
-
E.
Four Essays on Liberty
Four Essays on Liberty is a collection of political philosophy essays by Isaiah Berlin that explores concepts of freedom, particularly his influential distinction between negative and positive liberty.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (49)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
essay
ⓘ
non-fiction work ⓘ political philosophy work ⓘ |
| advocates |
nonviolent resistance
ⓘ
refusal to pay taxes supporting injustice ⓘ |
| alsoKnownAs |
Resistance to Civil Government (Civil Disobedience)
ⓘ
surface form:
Civil Disobedience
Resistance to Civil Government (Civil Disobedience) ⓘ
surface form:
On the Duty of Civil Disobedience
|
| author | Henry David Thoreau ⓘ |
| centralClaim |
Individuals have a duty to resist unjust laws
ⓘ
Individuals should not permit governments to overrule their consciences ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| criticizes |
Mexican–American War
ⓘ
slavery in the United States ⓘ |
| firstPublishedIn | 1849 in Aesthetic Papers ⓘ |
| genre |
political essay
ⓘ
transcendentalist literature ⓘ |
| hasAuthorResidenceContext | Concord, Massachusetts ⓘ |
| hasKeyConcept |
conscientious objection
ⓘ
higher law ⓘ passive resistance ⓘ |
| hasMethodOfResistance |
refusal to cooperate with unjust government actions
ⓘ
tax resistance ⓘ |
| hasMoralStance | opposition to complicity in injustice ⓘ |
| historicalContext |
Mexican–American War era
ⓘ
U.S. slavery debate ⓘ |
| influenced |
Leo Tolstoy
ⓘ
Mahatma Gandhi ⓘ Martin Luther King Jr. ⓘ civil rights movement ⓘ nonviolent resistance movements ⓘ |
| influencedBy |
American abolitionism
ⓘ
Christian ethics ⓘ Transcendentalism ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| mainSubject |
civil disobedience
ⓘ
individual conscience ⓘ political obligation ⓘ resistance to unjust laws ⓘ |
| originalPublicationMedium | Aesthetic Papers ⓘ |
| originalPublicationType | magazine ⓘ |
| partOf | American political thought canon ⓘ |
| philosophicalTheme |
limits of state authority
ⓘ
moral responsibility of the individual ⓘ relationship between law and justice ⓘ |
| philosophicalTradition | Transcendentalism ⓘ |
| publicationYear | 1849 ⓘ |
| relatedWork |
Walden; or, Life in the Woods
ⓘ
surface form:
Walden
|
| setting | 19th-century United States ⓘ |
| title |
Resistance to Civil Government (Civil Disobedience)
self-link
ⓘ
surface form:
Resistance to Civil Government
|
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Resistance to Civil Government (Civil Disobedience) Description of subject: "Resistance to Civil Government" (commonly known as "Civil Disobedience") is an 1849 essay by Henry David Thoreau that argues individuals should not permit governments to overrule their consciences and have a duty to resist unjust laws.
Referenced by (4)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
Resistance to Civil Government (Civil Disobedience)
→
title
→
Resistance to Civil Government (Civil Disobedience)
self-link
ⓘ
subject surface form:
Resistance to Civil Government
this entity surface form:
Resistance to Civil Government
Resistance to Civil Government (Civil Disobedience)
→
alsoKnownAs
→
Resistance to Civil Government (Civil Disobedience)
ⓘ
subject surface form:
Resistance to Civil Government
this entity surface form:
Civil Disobedience
Resistance to Civil Government (Civil Disobedience)
→
alsoKnownAs
→
Resistance to Civil Government (Civil Disobedience)
ⓘ
subject surface form:
Resistance to Civil Government
this entity surface form:
On the Duty of Civil Disobedience