Opening symposium 2007-2008
"Authority. The right or power to command, to be obeyed From antiquity to the present day, in every culture, authority - sovereignty, the sacred, the book, dogma - has founded social order. But what about today? In virtual space, what is still authoritative?
Authority is everywhere and nowhere. Law, philosophy, religion, political science, economics, sociology - all these fields of knowledge will be questioned on the function they have ascribed and ascribe to authority, on the need for authority, on the effects of its absence, on laissez-faire and regulation.
Science has spoken out against the argument of authority, but there is authority in science and authority in the sciences. All the exact, human and social sciences deal with authority. How is consensus built in research? How is scientific authority defined? What kind of submission does it demand? How can it be contested?
Today, there are more and more independent authorities. Is this the result of our growing mistrust of state authority?
Nulla auctoritas nisi a Deo," goes the medieval adage coined by Saint Paul. "There is no authority that does not come from God How can authority be founded in the 21st century?