Editing Might makes right

{{Short description|View that morality is, or ought to be, determined by those in power}}
{{Other uses}}
{{redirect|Might is right|the book|Might Is Right}}

"'''Might makes right'''" or "'''might is right'''" is an [[aphorism]] that asserts that those who hold power are the origin of [[moral code|morality]], and they control a society's view of [[Right (ethics)|right]] and [[wrong]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Definition of MIGHT MAKES/IS RIGHT |url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/might%20makes/is%20right |access-date=2024-10-14 |website=www.merriam-webster.com |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Dictionary.com {{!}} Meanings & Definitions of English Words |url=https://www.dictionary.com/browse/might-makes-right |access-date=2024-10-14 |website=Dictionary.com |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=might makes right |url=https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/might+makes+right |access-date=2024-10-14 |website=TheFreeDictionary.com |language=en}}</ref>  [[William Pepperell Montague|Montague]]  defined '''kratocracy''' or '''kraterocracy''' (from the {{langx|grc|κράτος|krátos|might; strength}}) as a government by those strong enough to seize control through violence or [[deceit]].<ref name="auto">{{cite dictionary |last=Hausheer |first=Herman |editor-last=Runes |editor-first=Dagobert D. |editor-link=Dagobert D. Runes |url=http://www.ditext.com/runes/k.html |entry=Kratocracy |title=Dictionary of Philosophy |year=1942}}</ref>

"Might makes right" has been described as the [[credo]] of [[totalitarian]] regimes.<ref>{{citation |first=G.E. |last=White |title=Evolution of Reasoned Elaboration: Jurisprudential Criticism and Social Change, The |url=http://heinonlinebackup.com/hol-cgi-bin/get_pdf.cgi?handle=hein.journals/valr59&section=19 |year=1973 |publisher=Va. L. Rev.}}</ref> The sociologist [[Weberian|Max Weber]] analyzed the relations between a state's power and its moral authority in {{lang|de|[[Economy and Society|Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft]]}}. [[Realism (international relations)|Realist]] scholars of [[international politics]] use the phrase to describe the "[[state of nature]]" in which power determines the relations among sovereign states.<ref>{{citation |first=J.L. |last=Ray |title=Understanding Rummel |journal=Journal of Conflict Resolution |volume=26 |pages=161–187 |year=1982 |doi=10.1177/0022002782026001007 |s2cid=220628906}}</ref>

== History ==

The idea, though not the wording, has been attributed to the ''[[History of the Peloponnesian War]]'', written around 410 BC by the ancient historian [[Thucydides]], who stated 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."<ref>{{cite book |title=The Melian Dialogue |title-link=The Melian dialogue |author=Thucydides |author-link=Thucydides |year=431}}</ref>

In the first chapter of Plato's ''[[The Republic (Plato)|Republic]]'', authored around 375 BC [[Thrasymachus]] claims that "justice is nothing else than the interest of the stronger", which [[Socrates]] then disputes.<ref>{{cite book |author=Plato |author-link=Plato |title=Plato's Republic |title-link=Plato's Republic |chapter=Book 1 |year=375}}</ref> [[Callicles]] in ''[[Gorgias (dialogue)|Gorgias]]'' argues similarly that the strong should rule the weak, as a right owed to their superiority.<ref>{{cite book |author=Plato |author-link=Plato |title=Gorgias |title-link=Gorgias (dialogue) |year=380}}</ref>

The [[Book of Wisdom]], written around the first century BC to first century AD, describes the reasoning of the wicked: "Let us oppress the righteous poor man; let us not spare the widow nor regard the gray hairs of the aged. But let our might be our law of right, for what is weak proves itself to be useless."<ref>[https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Wisdom%202&version=RSV Wisdom 2, 10-11]</ref>

The related idea of "woe to the conquered" is stated by [[Livy]], in which the similar Latin phrase "''[[vae victis]]''" is first recorded.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Titus Livius (Livy), The History of Rome, Book 5, chapter 48 |url=http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0145:book=5:chapter=48 |access-date=2025-03-27 |website=www.perseus.tufts.edu}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.etymonline.com/word/vae%20victis | title=Vae victis &#124; Etymology of phrase vae victis by etymonline }}</ref>

An early instance of the phrase in English is found in [[Thomas Carlyle]]'s 1839 essay ''[[Chartism]]'': "Might and Right do differ frightfully from hour to hour; but give them centuries to try it in, they are found to be identical." He later clarified his position in a journal entry from 1848, saying that "right is the eternal symbol of might" rather than the reverse.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Boos |first=Florence S. |title=Carlyle's Conception of the Hero in Sartor Resartus and On Heroes |url=https://victorianfboos.studio.uiowa.edu/carlyles-conception-hero-sartor-resartus-and-heroes |access-date=2024-04-18 |website=victorianfboos.studio.uiowa.edu}}</ref>

In 1846, the American [[pacifist]] and [[Abolitionism in the United States|abolitionist]] [[Adin Ballou]] (1803–1890) 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."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ballou |first=Adin |author-link=Adin Ballou |year=1846 |title=Christian Non-Resistance, in All Its Important Bearings, Illustrated and Defended |location=Philadelphia |publisher=J. Miller M'Kim |oclc=7335706411 |page=[https://archive.org/details/christiannonres02ballgoog/page/n124/mode/2up 119]}}</ref>

[[Abraham Lincoln]]'s [[Cooper Union Address|Cooper Union campaign address]] (1860) famously reverses the phrase by stating: "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".<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lQmUab8SnhQC&dq=%22Let%20us%20have%20faith%20that%20right%20makes%20might%2C%20and%20in%20that%20faith%2C%20let%20us%2C%20to%20the%20end%2C%20dare%20to%20do%20our%20duty%20as%20we%20understand%20it%22&pg=PT133 | title=Lincoln at Cooper Union: The Speech That Made Abraham Lincoln President | isbn=978-1-4165-4794-5 | last1=Holzer | first1=Harold | date=7 November 2006 | publisher=Simon and Schuster }}</ref><ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Epsf5z_bL6UC&dq=Let+us+have+faith+that+right+makes+might%2C+and+in+that+faith%2C+let+us%2C+to+the+end%2C+dare+to+do+our+duty+as+we+understand+it%22.&pg=PA204 | title=Abraham Lincoln: A Biography | isbn=978-0-8093-2887-1 | last1=Thomas | first1=Benjamin P. | date=26 September 2008 | publisher=SIU Press }}</ref>

[[Arthur Desmond]] authored ''[[Might Is Right]]'' in 1896, which prompted criticism from [[Leo Tolstoy]].<ref>[[iarchive:whatisart00maudgoog/page/n175|<!-- pg=159 quote=fittest. --> What is art?]] Leo Tolstoy</ref>

Philosopher [[William Pepperell Montague]] coined the term ''Kratocracy'', from the {{langx|el|κρατερός}} ({{lang|el-latn|krateros}}), meaning "strong", for government by those who are strong enough to seize power through force or cunning.<ref name="auto" />

In a letter to [[Albert Einstein]] from 1932, [[Sigmund Freud]] also explores the history and validity of "might versus right".<ref>{{cite book |url=http://www.freud.org.uk/file-uploads/files/WHY%20WAR.pdf |title=Why War? An Exchange of Letters Between Freud and Einstein |date=30 July 1932 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150610140311/http://www.freud.org.uk/file-uploads/files/WHY%20WAR.pdf |archive-date=10 June 2015 |publisher=Freud Museum}}</ref>

[[Pope Francis]] observed that "immense inequality, injustice and acts of violence" have arisen from adoption of the principle of "might is right".<ref>Pope Francis, [https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si.html Laudato si' (''On Care for our Common Home'')], paragraph 82, published 24 May 2015, accessed 11 June 2023</ref>

== See also ==
{{div col|colwidth=20em}}
* ''[[Argumentum ad baculum]]''
* [[Dominant culture]]
* [[Divide and conquer]]
* [[Friedrich Nietzsche]]
* [[Law of the jungle]]
* [[Machiavelli|Machiavellianism]]
* [[Master–slave_morality#Master_morality|Master morality]]
* [[Max Stirner]]
* [[Melian Dialogue]]
* [[Political realism]]
* [[Political repression]]
* [[Power politics]]
* [[Right of conquest]]
* [[Social Darwinism]]
* [[Supremacism]]
* [[Survival of the fittest]]
* [[Trial by combat]]
* [[Victor's justice]]
* [[Winner and loser culture]]
{{div col end}}

== References ==
{{Reflist|30em}}


{{Wikiquote}}

[[Category:1840s neologisms]]
[[Category:1840s quotations]]
[[Category:Adages]]
[[Category:Concepts in ethics]]
[[Category:Political terminology]]
[[Category:Quotations from military]]
[[Category:Slogans]]
[[Category:Concepts in political philosophy]]
[[Category:Aphorisms]]
[[Category:Totalitarianism]]