Answer to Question #190521 in Political Science for December

Question

Which of the following statements pertaining to the source of authority is incorrect? 

Indicate the incorrect option. 

1. According to Plato, philosophers should be the rulers of society since they were the only 

persons who possessed a totality of knowledge and wisdom about the world. 

2. Although deriving authority from reason is different from deriving authority from God, attempts 

were made by medieval philosophers to reconcile reason and authority. 

3. Hobbes’ assumption that the modern state with unlimited powers was the product of a social 

contract to rise above a pre-political anarchic state of nature is an example of consent as the 

source of authority. 

4. Authority can be derived from the illegitimate exercise of force and constitutes a viable and 

acceptable source of authority in the modern state.

Answer 1

4. Authority can be derived from the illegitimate exercise of force and constitutes a viable and

acceptable source of authority in the modern state.