The First Thread of the Web: Grasping the Question
Law transforms our lives in the most important way: it changes how we act and because of this it gives rise to fundamental questions. One such question concerns legal authority and individual autonomy and asks: if we are autonomous agents how do legislators, judges and officials have legitimate authority to change our actions and indirectly change how we conduct our lives? We conceive ourselves as active agents who determine how and when to act, and we conceive ourselves as the planners of our own lives and the creators of change. Law asks us, however, to perform actions that range from the trivial to the complex. But how is it possible for me to do, in full awareness, as the law asks and, at the same time, be in control of my own destiny? How is my free will affected by the law?
But how is this possible when I am simply trying to conform with what the law says? This means, I am trying to follow what the law says without giving much...
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Notes
- 1.
I will use ‘reasons in action’ and ‘reasons for action’ interchangeably. At the end of the book it will become clear the reason for this interchange of terminology.
- 2.
For some exceptions, see Velleman (1989).
- 3.
The notion of paradigm follows the idea of core-resemblance that is defended in my article Rodriguez-Blanco (2007).
- 4.
Rodriguez-Blanco (2014), paperback edition 2016.
- 5.
- 6.
For a criticism of this interpretation of “practical syllogism” Rodriguez-Blanco (2014), at §4.2.1.
- 7.
A version of this argument can be found in Finnis (1980).
- 8.
Rodriguez-Blanco (2014), at §4.1 and §4.2.
- 9.
- 10.
See especially Frede (2011).
- 11.
See Wood (2008) for a critique of the constructivist reading of Kant.
- 12.
- 13.
Wood argues that Kant’s .view concerning the objectivity of principles should be understood along realist lines.
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Rodriguez-Blanco, V. (2018). Authority of Law. In: Sellers, M., Kirste, S. (eds) Encyclopedia of the Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6730-0_377-1
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