Might Makes Right

Might makes right is an aphorism which was first coined as a sarcastic and ironic reframing of its subject. That is to say, the declaration that the power to declare values (obviously one of several such) is obtainable through the use of force, predates and was the motivation for criticism of it, of which the phrase was one. In English, the phrase is often used in negative assessments of expressions of power, with a sarcastic tone, implying that the ethical negative of violence makes a poor associate of ethical values of 'good's. This use is related to the argument that the end does not justify the means, just as the belief in it is related to the belief that the end justifies the means.

The use of it to refer to ethical supremacy over violence

• The second related idea associated with the phrase connotes that a society's view of right and wrong is determined, like its perspective on history, by those currently in power.

History

The idea of "woe to the conquered" can be found in Homer and the hawk parable in Hesiod's 'Works and Days' and in Livy - in which "Vae Victis", Latin for "woe to the conquered", is firstly recorded. The first known use of this phrase in the English language was in 1846 by the American pacifist and abolitionist Adin Ballou (1803–1890), who wrote "But now, instead of discussion and argument, brute force rises up to the rescue of discomfited error, and crushes truth and right into the dust. 'Might makes right,' and hoary folly totters on in her mad career escorted by armies and navies." (Christian Non-Resistance: In All Its Important Bearings, Illustrated and Defended, 1846.)

The phrase in reverse is echoed in Abraham Lincoln's words in his February 27, 1860, Cooper Union Address: "Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith, let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it" - in his attempt to defend a policy of neutral engagement with those who practice slavery, perhaps to appear more nationally oriented and religiously convicted in hopes of winning the presidential election (which he did).

The idea, though not the wording, has been attributed to the History of the Peloponnesian War by the ancient Greek historian Thucydides. Thus stated: "...since you know as well as we do that right, as the world goes, is only in question between equals in power, while the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must."

In a letter to Albert Einstein from 1932, Sigmund Freud clearly explores this idea of "might versus right" as well. He discusses the relationship between the two and how this concept has in fact existed throughout time.

In the first chapter of Plato's The Republic, Thrasymachus claims that Might makes right, which Socrates then disputes.

"Might makes right" has been described as the credo of totalitarian regimes. "Realist" scholars of international politics think of it as a game in a kind of "state of nature" in which might makes right.

References in literature

The author T.H. White covered this topic extensively in the Arthurian novel The Once and Future King. Merlyn teaches young Arthur to challenge this concept, who, after assuming the throne, attempts to reduce violence through various means and with varying degrees of success.

See also

Melian Dialogue

References

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