The Dilemma of Authority.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Fives, Allyn.

Series:

Social and Political Power Series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Authority.

Power (Social sciences).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (223 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Manchester : Manchester University Press, 2026.

Summary:

The moral problem of authority is the challenge of reconciling legitimate authority (the right to rule) with the demands of freedom and rationality. In this book, it is argued that authority can have legitimacy, but when it does it generates a moral dilemma, where the obligation to obey comes at some cost to freedom and reason.

Contents:

Cover

Half Title

Series Page

Title Page

Copyright information

Dedication

Contents

Figure and tables

Preface

Chapter 1: The problem of authority

A question for political philosophy

The moral problem of authority

The demands a political community makes

On practical rationality: reason, ought, and obligation

Authority and moral conflict

The methods and limits of political philosophy

Notes

Chapter 2: Authority and authority scepticism

What authority is: practical authority and deference

Why authority is rejected: a priori philosophical anarchism and pluralism

Bernard Williams' critique of 'the morality system'

The importance of moral conflict

Chapter 3: Joseph Raz's service conception of authority

Authority and meta-ethics in Joseph Raz's work

The idea of a higher-level reason

The kinds of reason that are excluded by authority

Defence of authority 1: the demands of rationality

Defence of authority 2: the demands of freedom

Chapter 4: Authority and moral dilemmas

The hypothesis stated

That moral dilemmas leave a remainder

The importance of weight as well as level

A critique of all general rules for resolving conflicts

Incommensurability and moral dilemmas

Chapter 5: Moral freedom and political freedom

Necessity, responsibility, and negative freedom

Free to do as one pleases

Freedom for value monists and weak value pluralists

When the requirement to protect negative freedom is and is not a reason

The good of negative freedom

Chapter 6: Voluntarism

Normative justification of authority

A. J. Simmons and the voluntarist case for anarchism

Plural grounds of authority

The problem with generality

A defeated duty does not 'fade away'

The importance of justice as a reason for action

Note.

Chapter 7: Membership and the communitarian thesis

Why and how membership matters

John Horton on associative obligation, moral conflict, and toleration

A moral justification of authority

Membership and general moral principles

The goods of membership

Membership and moral obligation

Chapter 8: On the plural grounds of authority

Normative pluralism and authority

The grounds of legitimacy

Pluralist objections to the mode of operation of an authoritative directive

How pluralists cannot do without the idea of authority

How pluralists cannot explain the anarchist critique of political obligations

Note

Chapter 9: Problems some deliberative democrats have with authority

Concerning those deliberative democrats who set out to justify authority

Two versions of deliberative democracy

Democracy and the moral problem of authority

Democratic norms and deference

Democratic procedures and deference

Chapter 10: Reasons and norms

The problem stated

Joseph Raz's version of the reason-conforming approach

Objection I: assigning authority where it does not belong

Objection II: unable to identify those who rightly hold authority

The norm-based approach

Chapter 11: Soft authority

What type of authority: hard or soft?

An inconclusive obligation to obey

Autonomous disobedience of legitimate authority

Even legitimate authority comes at some cost to negative freedom

Tragedies, excuses, toleration

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Part of the metadata in this record was created by AI, based on the text of the resource.

ISBN:

1-5261-9308-6

1-5261-9310-8

OCLC:

1585501369