Abstract

This paper examines the way in which ‘authority’ and ‘authoritarianism’ have been conflated in contemporary philosophical thought. More specifically, it will show how the psycho-social critique of political authority developed by the Frankfurt School in the 1930s established a paradigm for the critique of political authority as ‘authoritarian irrationalism’. The paper goes on to explore the limitations of this paradigm in the contemporary era, where political authority has been largely supplanted by the epistemic and ontological authority of techno-science . The paper will conclude with a plea for contemporary philosophers to recognise the significance of the ‘authority of the good’ as means for ensuring more sustainable and convivial modes of techno-scientific development