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.
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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.
Read Less
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Good. All pages and cover are intact. Possible minor highlighting and marginalia. Ships from an indie bookstore in NYC. XXVIII, 365 p. Intended for professional and scholarly audience.
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Good. Ships same day or next business day! UPS shipping available (Priority Mail for AK/HI/APO/PO Boxes). Used sticker and some writing and/or highlighting. Used books may not include working access code. Used books will not include dust jackets.
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Seller's Description:
Good. XXVIII, 365 p. Intended for professional and scholarly audience. May show signs of wear, highlighting, writing, and previous use. This item may be a former library book with typical markings. No guarantee on products that contain supplements Your satisfaction is 100% guaranteed. Twenty-five year bookseller with shipments to over fifty million happy customers.
Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination.
Seller's Description:
Good. XXVIII, 365 p. Intended for professional and scholarly audience. May show signs of wear, highlighting, writing, and previous use. This item may be a former library book with typical markings. No guarantee on products that contain supplements Your satisfaction is 100% guaranteed. Twenty-five year bookseller with shipments to over fifty million happy customers.
The first half of this book shows that the most-used justifications of political authority -- explicit or hypothetical social contract, democracy, fairness and utility -- do not hold water. None of them succeeds in making a solid, non-circular case for the existence of a monopoly on coercion. The second half of the book considers how a society could conceivably function better without that monopoly power.
What is pretty much taken for granted without examination is private property: both ownership of produced goods, and exclusive license to non-produced things such as city lots, frequencies, mineral deposits, etc. I'd be delighted to see a new book giving an anarchist treatment of ownership relations.
This is real philosophy, and the book makes lots of clear points. I enjoyed it thoroughly.