Is power authority?
Is authority power?
If not, what does power need to be authority?
A piece of authority is powerful because it has much power. Power increases when more authority is gained. It is a bit confusing unless recognising authority as a kind of power, so the quantity of power can be regarded as the string of the matter.
Very interesting theory. So you say that there are two kinds of power, one which has authority and one which doesn’t. I suppose authority has more power among those who accept it. Also that the power which is not authority can have more power than the power which is authority.
The whole subject seems so difficult - yet so simple, it might well be as you make the distinction.
my real name
I agree with the duality of complexity and simplicity of the nature of things. I think this is why many people can’t be bothered with philosophy, cause for them, life is all figured out clear as water, and really, you can’t blame those people. For us though, things are complicatised, we argue and prove, alone the way we create whatever we know.
Perhaps we can discuss, under another topic, whether knowledge is created or discovered.
And many of the things we argue to are known before the arguments start…but with less clarity? Since it matters where you start a philosophy.
Now if knowledge has no power to discover, does it have any authority?
my real name
“Respect my authority!!!” -Cartman
appeals to authority can be fallacious in arguments…
the only thing power needs to be authority is direction…
-Imp
Do you mean direction from a director, or direction as in place moved to?
from a director to a point, but moreso over the directed…
-Imp
But can’t the force which is not authority be directed too? A gangster with a gun might direct a person to aid them in robbing a bank – or be shot.
where is the force that is not authority in that example?
the robber is doing the directing, the person who submits to the direction gives the authority to the robber… if the robber shot the person for not “respecting his authority” the robber would simply have exersized power and authority would have been moot…
-Imp
Don’t the directed need to consent to be directed. You could have the power of a whip over an Ox, but if aint gonna move whipping it won’t move it. I guess this would apply to the more resolute members of a Society
More on power and authority. Power is obviously an abstract thing we made up. It is like any other mathematical quality, we make them up as a means to measure the quantity of things. Authority, how influential it is, depends on how much power it has. Power exists in authority, authority is a form of power, is a thing that possess power. Authority itself is abstract too, as we know it, we use it to measure power. This messy matter reminds me of Kant’s Critique of Pure Reaseon.
What’s knowledge? Something there that need to be discovered? Sounds fine, like any physical rules. But when you think about maths, things aren’t so clear anymore. Just why is maths special, over all sciences, as no science can do without maths. Maybe you’ll just say that maths is a universal rule, and we discovered it like other rules. Still, the speciality of maths is ever there. Again, how come, what’s the distinction?
We saw an object, then another. We know now that we have two objects. We symbolise the existance of a whole thing on its own as 1, then we have ourselves 1 and another. When there are many objects in front of us, we can’t note them down as 1, another, another and so on. We then symbloise 1 and another distinct beings as 2; one, another and another as 3… In making life easier, we have ourselves mathematics, and addition is likely to be the first thing we have in this subject.
I’ve been using lots of “have” instead of “create”, “make up”… The reason is: I don’t know, not sure. My thought is limited by my language. My language is flawed.
authority and power are both illusions created by the majority’s will to submit to the minority.
Power creates authority, without the means to show your abilities or consequences for that matter to the general masses or specific person, there is no incentive to pay even the closest attention.
The world is ruled mostly by Fear, the rest by Stupidity.
Authority hides and justifies power. Authority is a certain phenomena of power that diffuses it into institutions rather than showing its real form as exercised by people.