Exact(5)
God is a being who is to be obeyed, is someone who is a practical authority over us.
No version of theological voluntarism that is built simply around God's causal role in actualizing moral obligations implies that God is a practical authority.
For one to be a practical authority over another is, at least, for one to have some sort of control over others' reasons for action.
Some have argued that the account of practical reason required by the idea that political authority is a practical authority is incoherent and so they have opted for the idea that political authorities, when legitimate, are theoretical authorities regarding the existence and nature of the duties and reasons for action that people have (Hurd 2001).
This is a prerequisite for authority because what distinguishes a (practical) authority, on Raz's "service" conception, is that its directives preempt consideration of the underlying reasons for what we ought to do, and in so doing actually makes it more likely that we will do what we really ought to do.
Similar(54)
It is a kind of practical authority, i.e. authority over action.
Most theorists of political authority view it as a species of practical authority rather than theoretical authority, though this view is not held by all.
Since this view is unusual this entry will concentrate on conceptions of political authority that treat it as a species of practical authority.
Those who hold that political authority is a species of practical authority maintain that political authorities issue directives that give people reasons for action and not reason for belief.
The idea of authority has been clarified by contemporary legal theorists such as Raz and Hart, by reflection upon the kind of reasons for action purportedly given to potentially acting subjects by an exercise of practical authority.
It shows the grounds for instituting and accepting practical authority as an almost invariably necessary means for preventing forms of harm and neglect which, because contrary to the high-level moral principles (at least as they bear on relationships between persons), involve injustice.
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Justyna Jupowicz-Kozak
CEO of Professional Science Editing for Scientists @ prosciediting.com