Carolina QuotesConsider what kind of authority [can be ascribed to] any principle which it open to us to choose to regard as authoritative or not. I may choose for example to observe a regimen of asceticism and fasting … for reasons of health … What authority such principles possess derives from the reasons for my choice. Insofar as they are good reasons, the principles have corresponding authority; insofar as they are not, the principles are to that same extent deprived of authority. It would follow that a principle for the choice of which no reasons could be given would be a principle devoid of authority. I might indeed adopt such a principle from whim or caprice or from some arbitrary purpose … but if I then chose to abandon the principle whenever it suited me, I would be entirely free to do so.
Alasdair MacIntyre Connected to the Carolinas
Source
p. 42
- work
- After Virtue (2007 version, 3rd Ed.)
- year
- 2007
- locator
- p. 42
Cite this record
“Consider what kind of authority [can be ascribed to] any pri…” Alasdair MacIntyre. Carolina Quotes, record CQ-D2681E54BE. https://carolinaquotes.com/quote/d2681e54be
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