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The Problem of Political Authority

An Examination of the Right to Coerce and the Duty to Obey

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  • © 2013
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Overview

Authors:
  1. Michael Huemer

    1. University of Colorado, Boulder, USA

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Table of contents (13 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xxviii
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  3. Society without Authority

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 181-181
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    2. Evaluating Social Theories

      • Michael Huemer
      Pages 183-197
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    3. The Logic of Predation

      • Michael Huemer
      Pages 198-229
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    4. Individual Security in a Stateless Society

      • Michael Huemer
      Pages 230-264
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    5. Criminal Justice and Dispute Resolution

      • Michael Huemer
      Pages 265-287
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    6. War and Societal Defense

      • Michael Huemer
      Pages 288-320
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    7. From Democracy to Anarchy

      • Michael Huemer
      Pages 321-338
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  4. Back Matter

    Pages 339-365
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Keywords

About this book

The state is often ascribed a special sort of authority, one that obliges citizens to obey its commands and entitles the state to enforce those commands through threats of violence. This book argues that this notion is a moral illusion: no one has ever possessed that sort of authority.

Authors and Affiliations

  • University of Colorado, Boulder, USA

    Michael Huemer

About the author

Michael Huemer is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Colorado at Boulder, USA, where he has worked since 1998. He is the author of Skepticism and the Veil of Perception and Ethical Intuitionism , as well as more than 40 articles in ethics, epistemology, political philosophy, and metaphysics.

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