The Notion of Authority. Alexandre Kojève

and rise to the metaphysical level.

      The metaphysical analysis (A, II) relates the phenomenon of Authority to the fundamental structure of the objectively real World. In this way, it allows us to see whether the described phenomena correspond to all possibilities provided by the World, and whether a given phenomenon has a simple or compound metaphysical origin.

      Finally, the ultimate justification of the theory founded on, and guaranteed by, the metaphysical analysis can derive only from an even more profound analysis, which penetrates down to the ontological level.

      The ontological analysis (A, III) studies the structure of Being as such, and it allows us to understand the whys and wherefores of the (metaphysical) structure of the real World. This same structure, for its part, allows us to classify and analyse systematically (on the phenomenological level) the phenomena in question that appear in this World.

      Note: In all these three analyses, the notion of God must be used, even assuming that the latter does not exist, being nothing other than a ‘myth’. Since the ‘believer’ has always attributed to God the maximum of authority, it is therefore in Him that this phenomenon can be studied as if under a microscope. We shall avoid applying to Man what we discover in God. And it is precisely if God is nothing more than a ‘myth’ that the analysis of divine Authority is in fact an analysis of human Authority: without realising it, Man projects onto God what he discovers – more or less unconsciously – in himself, in such a way that he can be studied while studying ‘his’ God.

      The theory of Authority that results from this triple analysis will be fully guaranteed and justified. It might serve in turn as a starting point for various deductions (B).

      The theory will have, first of all, political applications (B, I). Assuming that every state presupposes and is based on Authority, the theory of the State can be deduced from the theory of Authority.

      Secondly, the theory of Authority will have ethical applications (B, II). A correct and justified theory will make it possible to defend Authority and the State (and more specifically, therefore, the authoritarian State) against moral or moralising critiques deduced from non-political notions. In other words, the theory of Authority will make possible the deduction of a specifically political ethics, which would be essentially different from the ‘private’ morality that is generally the basis of attempts to criticise Authority in its being and in its acts.

      Finally, the theory of authority will have psychological applications (B, III). Knowing what Authority is, the way Man and men must be acted on can be deduced so as either to engender or to maintain an Authority.

      In what follows, all these questions can only be sketched out. I make no claim to lay down a definitive and complete theory of Authority. We must rather formulate problems and indicate general directions towards their resolution.