Friday, May 22, 2026

Oh yeah? MAKE ME!

 


OK, maybe might can't "make right" all by itself. But could power nevertheless be in the mix that has to be used to bake anything that can be correctly designated a (governmental) right? Could the ability to force compliance actually be essential to it?  Kenneth Einar Himma has pushed a coercion thesis detailing why and how power and evident detriment to those who try to ignore it is essential to any recipe for legal authority. And his little book, The Nature of Authority is a recent addition to his incisive output on this subject. I have just reviewed it here# 


Himma's approach to the various puzzles surrounding  legality through an initial focus on authority is important, and, at least to my knowledge, unique.  (Consider the now hoary question of whether angels need -- or can even have -- laws. Or the newer one of whether Satan could be a deliverer of legal edicts.) 


FWIW, I have long struggled with questions like these myself, as well as with how answers to them relate to such crucial issues as civil disobedience,$ and am finding Himma's writings extremely helpful. So, I highly recommend the study of his books and papers (in spite of their occasionally daunting complexity) to all who wonder what legitimate authority is all about.


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#with the customary batch of typos and other errors generously and jointly supplied by me and the 3:16 AM publisher. Sadly, I don't have the power to change anything at that site. Ugh.

$No doubt a bit of floundering/spluttering can be discerned from this and this as well as various other attempts of mine to suss these matters out.

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