The Nature of Authority

This Element provides a comprehensive rigorous conceptual account of the nature of practical authority and its constitutive properties.

Kenneth Einar Himma (Author)

9781009507813, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 9 January 2025

76 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 0.6 cm, 0.276 kg

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.

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.

Subject Areas: Jurisprudence & philosophy of law [LAB]