Kojeve provides thus a generalized conception of authority along with an extensive taxonomy of specific types of authority. Given Kojeve’s interest in history and narrative, it is somewhat surprising that his account of the various types of authority is offered in a distinctively non-historical way. Particularly striking is Kojeve’s attempt to provide a comprehensive list of all possible types of authority in all possible situations by means of an art of combination that yields sixty-four types of authority. While this approach may seem unusual if not eccentric, it merely reflects the classificatory impulse that dominates the manuscript and seeks to give us a final or authoritative view of authority. The question of finality and completeness is central for it reveals the work’s basic proposition in a starker way — namely, that authority may only durably succeed if it is unquestioned or, better, unquestionable.

At the beginning of the book he argues that the main emphasis of most approaches to authority has been on its genesis and transmission, adding that the four theories he specifically refers to – namely those of Hegel, Plato, Aristotle and the scholastics – are most complete at the phenomenological level. Thus, when he points to the three specific chapters mentioned above he is referring to the phenomenological analysis as a presentation in which common interpretations of authority are laid out; the metaphysical analysis as a place where he adds a new layer to the already existing conceptions of authority (one that doesn’t build on the sheer presence of authority); and the political applications as a place where he offers insights on the existing theories – several of which are already introduced in the phenomenological analysis – from his metaphysical reconsiderations on authority. The three chapters still carry value on their own, but Kojève emphasizes the relevance of the metaphysical analysis as it ‘justifies’ and ‘rectifies’ the phenomenological one.

The Notion of Authority is divided into two parts. The first and longer part, entitled ‘Analyses’, develops Kojève’s theory of authority. The second part, entitled ‘Deductions’, applies this theory to certain relations and institutions. The first part is preceded by a preface, entitled ‘Preliminary Remarks’, in which Kojève provides a very concise outline of the work. The second part is followed by two brief appendices
in which two concrete, contemporary cases are considered: the authority of Marshal Pétain in Vichy France; and revolutionary authority in the same socio-historical context. We may also note that this new edition contains a helpful introduction from
the original French edition by the legal scholar François Terré.

For Kojève, Authority (which, like other concepts internal to his system, he capitalizes) is the free and conscious assent of one person to the command of another. A gramophone cannot possess authority, nor can a subject under hypnosis be said to respond to it—both examples are Kojève’s. Authority requires that consciousness and freedom of will be present but, as it were, muted. There are, Kojève tells us, four pure types of authority. Kojève pursues “analysis” of them on what he calls the phenomenological, metaphysical, and ontological levels; he then presents “deductions” on political, ethical, and psychological applications. The four varieties of authority are associated with ideal social roles as well as previous philosophies of politics.

This recent English translation of Alexander Kojève’s The Notion of Authority (originally published in French in 1954) is an important addition to philosophical studies of authority and an essential text for understanding Kojève’s political thought. Although Kojève’s (1902-1968) influential lectures on Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit left an indelible mark on continental philosophers Jacques Lacan, Jacques Derrida, and Jean-Paul Sartre, and American philosophers such as Leo Strauss, this book was written primarily for a European political audience during the Second World War. The text is best read alongside later philosophical studies on authority, especially Hannah Arendt’s essay, What is Authority? and Herbert Marcuse’s A Study on Authority, as all three texts sought to bring authority back to political and social life in ways that don’t justify oppression, patriarchy, or traditionalism.