On the Necessity of an Authority

On The Necessity Of Authority

From the time human beings existed, people have lived in societies. They come together and form a society naturally as they are not self-sufficient. That is, human beings need each other to survive and improve their lifestyle by sharing, cooperating and producing. Apart from these, it can be easily said that no man loves to be alone and isolated. In other words, people come together and form society naturally. Society necessitates some rules to be obeyed and authority to rule people for its continuity. That is to say, there must be an authority where there is society. If there is no authority in society, anarchy will appear as the disruption of society. Despite the fact of anarchy in the absence of authority, there have been many discussions on the issue that, what the authority is and whether it is necessary or not. In his essay “on the origin of inequality” Rousseau supported the idea that human beings are naturally good, and society change human nature in the way of being competitive and cruel. (second part) On the other hand, Hobbes thinks that human beings are naturally cruel and never change, but society suppresses their evil desires. (chapter 13) Authority is defined as a provision of law or of a state or federal regulation permits or requires the regional agency to adopt, amend, or repeal the regulation. (Oxford Dictionary). In other words, authority means the power of someone or something that makes the people submit and obey them by forming, changing and removing laws and society is kept together and under control by these laws formed by authority. It is obvious that human beings’ naturally bad character, need for organization and the difficulties that will occur in the absence of authority requires a strong authority to rule and control people.

To begin with, human beings are naturally bad. Humans try to subdue each other to attain their goals and they harm each other easily when there is no powerful authority to be afraid of its punishment. As Hobbes states, there is competition, diffidence and seeking for glory in human nature. (Chapter 13) In contrast what Rousseau says about the change in human nature caused by society, Hobbes states that human nature does not change, but the circumstances change. (Hobbes-Chapter 13, Rousseau-Second Part) In other words, human nature stays cruel and selfish, but people form a society and create new circumstances for themselves like authority. Hobbes tries to prove his thesis with some examples. To mention some of these examples, Hobbes says that even in an authorized state, people do not trust each other, as they lock their doors when they leave their house or lock their chests even they are at home. (chapter 13)These examples show that human nature never changes. When even they live in society, they distrust each other and still have their evil desires to attain their goals. Apart from this, Rousseau’s assumption of human nature’s naturally goodness seems unreal. If people had this delicacy naturally, nothing and no one could lead them being cruel and competitive. Because, all the people would have this delicacy naturally and any of them would not affect others in the bad way as they all have goodness in them. As a result, human beings are naturally cruel, and they need to be controlled and ruled by a powerful authority.

The second reason for the necessity of authority is organization and cooperation that makes people’s lifestyles better. Organization and cooperation that came with society brought the development in human history. All the products, houses, schools, etc, are the results of organization and cooperation in society. It is so obvious that there would be no development in human history without organization and cooperation. To give a specific example, cars that makes the life much more easier would not exist. Television, computers, books, education and clothes can also be included in this category. For good organization and cooperation between people, a strong authority is needed, however. Because, as Hobbes states in the absence of common power, people will steal each other’s properties and no one will produce anymore as no one pays him. (chapter 17) On the other hand, especially in today’s developed and complicated world, the importance of the authority to rule the standards of daily activities is easily recognized. Rousseau says that primitive people were cooperative,