The Nature of Authority

Texte du rabat

The Nature of Authority provides a comprehensive theory of the nature of authoritative guidance. It argues that the following claims exhaust the constitutive properties of authoritative tellings: authoritative tellings (1) tell subjects what to do; (2) give rise to reasons to comply; (3) are issued by personal beings and govern the behavior of personal beings; (4) are issued by rationally competent beings and govern the behavior of rationally competent beings; (5) are issued under a claim of right that counts as plausible in virtue of being grounded in a system to which subjects acquiesce as governing their behavior; (6) are issued by beings with the power to impose their will on subjects with respect to what they do; (7) create obligations to comply; and (8) are backed by a threat of detriment that is reasonably contrived to deter enough noncompliance to enable the system to minimally achieve its ends.

Contenu

Preface; Part I. Preliminary Considerations: 1. Introduction; 2. The existence conditions of practical authority; 3. Claims (1) through (7) and the sanctions thesis; 4. The Razian theory of practical authority; Part II. The Existence Conditions of Practical Authority; 5. The constitutive properties of authoritative tellings; 6. Other candidates for constitutive properties of authoritative tellings; Part III. Claims (1) through (7) and the Sanctions Thesis: 7. Practical authority as telling people what to do; 8. Practical authority as a source of reasons to comply; 9. Practical authority as a personal relationship; 10. Practical authority as rational; 11. Practical authority as the power of will-imposition; 12. Practical authority as grounded in a claim of right; 13. Practical authority as giving rise to obligations; 14. Must authoritative tellings create exclusionary reasons?; 15. Objections - Of angels and emergency volunteers; Conclusions; Bibliography.