The Ethics of Authority: The Moral Philosophy of Respect for Power

Respect for authority is a loaded phrase that is often tossed around by cultural conservatives. Many of these disliked the general social unrest of the 1960s and want a calmer, more orderly society in which the authorities are listened to and obeyed. Is authority, though, a good thing?

Trust Authority

One type of authority builds on trust. Let's use a medical researcher as an example. She rises to prominence, becoming a leader in her field and respected by her peers. She even wins the Nobel Prize for her groundbreaking studies. One day, she announces that a new kind of soda pop causes cancer. What happens? People, or at least some people, will give this a measure of consideration. The soda pop company might notice their sales drop. The authority that this woman has built gives her the ability to influence others.

The Authority is Earned

This kind of authority is completely earned and built upon trust. If, to continue the example, further studies did not substantiate the claim that the new soda pop caused cancer, the authority of this medical researcher would be diminished. Furthermore, the next time she claimed something caused cancer, her authority would be respected less, because she was thought by everyone else to have been wrong the last time around. It is also important to note that she was only able to make claims like this to the general public because she had invested so much time and effort proving the value of her authority. She earned her authority, and so long as she uses it wisely, it deserves to be trusted and respected.

Malicious Authority

A very different type of authority can be shown in a very different example. Let's claim that a bloody military coup takes control of a small country. The new leader, still literally drenched in the blood of the democratically elected government, proclaims himself chosen by God to be the King of the land and threatens to kill anyone who disagrees with him. He has authority, but it is very different from that of the medical researcher. Rather than earn his authority by proving his value, the tyrant has merely assumed authority with threats and violence. Rather than adopting a reasonable standard to see if his authority should be continued, he uses fear and violence to threaten the people into obeying. In the final phase, the authority of such a leader stems from his oppressed people's desire to emulate him. Chris Hedges, in his book "American Fascists," writes "...the crowd, stripped of personal initiative, soon projects its dreams and aspirations for power through the leader."

Authority can be both good and bad, but much depends on how that authority was created and how it is to be maintained. Hard work and value deserve authority; violence and threats do not. Authority can be maintained by continued value, or it can be imposed via scare tactics and violence and emotional appeals. One authority deserves respect, while the other could deserve mockery, resistance, or rebellion.

The copyright of the article The Ethics of Authority in Philosophy is owned by Jared Plotkin. Permission to republish The Ethics of Authority in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Feb 6, 2009 5:22 AM

Andrew Haines :

I thought you were going to do a more in depth analysis of what makes an appeal to authority a logical or illogical move. As it turns out, I think you said the things that most of us already had a good grasp on.

I would be curious to hear whether or not you think an appeal to authority, in the case of the researcher, falls to the logical fallacy of the same name, or whether there is a credible and logically acceptable means of assenting to belief in the claims of another. For example, what do you think about appealing to the authority of a normal, fellow human being, who makes the claim that "there is ice on the steps outside"? Certainly, they've made mistakes in the past, and have a tarnished reputation for judgment. But ought you to listen to them?