ABSTRACT
The claims of authority have been usually pressed or repelled with more poignancy than philosophic detachment. Political authority or sovereignty has its basis in just this need to have practical controversies settled. In the history of the reaction against the rationalism of the Enlightenment, the authors find three main sources of authority to which individual reason is asked to submit. These are: the church, tradition, and the opinions of superiors or “betters”. The essence of the argument for tradition and authority is the actual inability of any single individual thoroughly to apply the process of reasoning and verification to all the propositions that solicit his attention. An emphatically anti-rational phase of parental authority appears when parents assume the right to dictate to colleges what religious, political, or economic doctrines are too dangerous to put before their sons and daughters supposed to be engaged in finding the truth about these subjects.
