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VOCABULARY OF PHILOSOPHY – AUTHORITY

AUTHORITY.—(1) The power allowed to common opinion ; (2) the weight of testimony coming from those who are experts or specialists; (3) ethical, the power to command under sanction of moral law; (4) civil, the power of constitutional rulers. «The principle of adopting the belief of others on a matter of opinion, without reference to the particular grounds on which the belief may rest» (Sir G. C. Lewis, On Authority in Matters of Opinion, p. 6).   «This word is sometimes employed in its primary sense, when we refer to any one’s example, testimony, or judgment; as when, e.g., we speak of correcting a reading in some book on the authority of an ancient MS., or giving a statement of some fact on the authority of such and such historians, &c. In this sense the word answers pretty nearly to the Latin auctoritas. It is a claim to deference. Sometimes, again, it is employed as equivalent to potestas, power, as when we speak of the authority of a magistrate. This is a claim to obedience» (Whately, Logic, app. I.). Una in re consentio omnium gentium lex naturæ putanda est (Cicero, I. Tuscul.). Multum dare solemus prœsumptioni omnium hominum: Apud nos veritatis argumentum est, aliquid omnibus videri (Seneca, epist. CXVII.).
 
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