There is a wonderful sentence at the very end of Martin Hollis’s Reason in Action where he posits the “epistemological unity of mankind which involves recognizing that the actor’s moral identity is at stake in every action.” While I am not convinced that this is true of every action it could nevertheless be the guiding epigram for this book. Establishing the connection of authority to certain critical aspects of self-identity will, I hope, contribute to a greater understanding of authority and its continuing resonance in today’s world. In fact, the idea of authority is so inimicable to the assumptions of most secular Western intellectuals that we have lost our ability to understand its continuing force in so many parts of the world, including our own. The following is an attempt to come to terms with this truth as well as to explain the particular difficulties we moderns have with the idea of authority. This remains the case even after more than a century of belief in the secular, democratic message of modernity. PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS PRINCETON AND OXFORD CONTENTSĬHAPTER ONE The Self in the Social SciencesĬHAPTER THREE Heteronomy and ResponsibilityĪuthority and the need for authority are irrevocable aspects of self and of the human condition.

Absolute wager