Abstract

RUIZ GUTIERREZ, Adriana María. CRISIS OF THE NOTION OF AUTHORITY. Univ. philos. [online]. 2017, vol.34, n.68, pp.143-172. ISSN 0120-5323.  https://doi.org/10.11144/Javeriana.uph34-68.crna.

This article focuses on the different relationships that bond the concept of auctoritas with the concept ofpotestas as essential notions of positive law, which are expressed in two areas: as sources of creation and protection of the legal and institutional order and as sources of denial and destruction of human life. Auctoritas considerably increases potestas when protection of order is required and, therefore, radically increases the power of destruction of human life. Law and life, then, are the foundation and the ultimate object of this intimate and complex link between auctoritas and potestas, objectified in the preservation of the law and, in turn, saturating the legal and political dimensions of human life, reducing it to bare life, that is, to a worthless object that can be managed, administered and eventually eliminated. Upon these premises, this paper aims to address the relations between auctoritas and potestas, and between them and the bare life, from the various analyzes and historical, political and legal outcomes. These analyzes allow us to state either the supremacy of the link between authority and power to ensure the validity of the legal and institutional order, or the supremacy of human life, free from this excessive link.

Keywords : auctoritas;potestas; violence; life..

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