Authority and Authoritarianism: Moral, Political and Epistemic Issues

Are we living in an age of Authoritarianism? The rise of moderate and extreme forms of authoritarianism has become an increasingly pressing issue in both public discussion and academic debate. If the more traditional definition of this term refers to State or élite domination, today there are manifestations of this phenomenon expanding in the entire social life, through various means, among which public discourse, social media, private companies’ influence over politics. The effects of this phenomenon are multifarious: people who arbitrarily claim authority or act as one, leading to the degradation of democratic participation, the weakening of check-and-balances, the new fascinating image of strength and strong leaders, a returning wave of moral authoritarianism and moralism.

In 1951, Hannah Arendt questioned the origins of totalitarianism in her well-known text on the political theory of XX Century regimes; today, a similar operation is needed to understand what the historical and ideological causes of this turn of events were, in order to defuse a regressive degeneration of social life.

This political-historical issue calls for a new understanding of the concept of authority in general. What is an Authority, and what is an epistemic or moral authority? What creates the conditions by which the concept of authority itself degrades into authoritarianism?

The ECSE Conference aims to deepen the ambivalence of moral and political authority and the origins of present-day forms of authoritarianism.