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    Carmelics

    A reasoning platform. Break down any belief into clear reasons, explore both sides, and weigh the evidence honestly.

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    LoyalLoyalJusticeJustice
    Made withinDC&Austin
    Statements
    321,452
    Perspectives
    108,905
    Topics
    42
    Home/Original/inverse
    See Original
    Inverse View

    It is not the case that A ruler can hold authority even when that authority ceases to be legitimate.

    ?Set your confidence on the premises below to see your aggregate.

    Reasons For

    2 perspectives
    Reason for 1 of 2
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    • 1.For Locke, authority is constituted by consent and dissolves when government systematically violates natural rights, leaving no residual power.
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    • 2.A ruler who loses legitimacy reverts to a state of war with the people, holding only coercive force, not authority in any normatively meaningful sense.
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    • 3.Conflating coercive power with authority equivocates on 'holds authority,' smuggling a descriptive claim into a normative framework.
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    Reason for 2 of 2
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    • 1.Raz's service conception grounds authority entirely in its capacity to help subjects better conform to reasons that already apply to them.
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    • 2.When a ruler systematically violates the conditions that justify deference, the 'normal justification thesis' fails and the obligation to obey dissolves with it.
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    • 3.Without an obligation to obey grounded in better reason-compliance, 'authority' names no real normative relationship but merely de facto domination.
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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
    ?
    • 1.Kant distinguishes between legitimate authority and effective authority.
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    • 2.If the head of the civil state violates the obligation to enact only laws to which all individuals could consent, the authority becomes illegitimate.
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    • 3.Yet the head of state still holds authority despite this violation.
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    Next step

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    Strongest counterpoint
    Explore the most compelling reason on the other side.