On Moral Authorities

[The Grand Nudger]

Well, you certainly don't need to act rationally to act morally, though I think that what it means for something to be moral in the first place has a rational requirement.  

I'm not sure that you've even approached the essence of why x is wrong, in your examples, but as I said above, it's not as if you have to act or think rationally to reach the correct moral conclusion, lol. I'd go with something a little simpler.  Good is what helps, bad is what harms.

Now, what does all of this have to do with authorities? Firstly, someone who is an authority has 

therefore, giving orders etc. must mean the authority must have some sort of goal or intent - a will of some kind.

snipped - quote issue, plus, who cares...you're already reaching for what you want to see out of a dictionary, lol

LOL, no.  Authority neither needs to be a "someone", nor do rules require a will. Further...power wouldn't make a -moral- authority unless might made right.   

I suppose in this way, authority isn't given, but earned. And earning it would be a result of other people acting rationally, because if you have the resources in order to fulfill their will, then by their rationalization you must become an authority. After all, that is partly why we want certain people to become presidents, right (the irony!!!)?

I'm not much on will fulfillment as the source of morality.

Therefore, by this reasoning, the ultimate authority would have to be a being with the most resources available to it - something akin to a god. Not only would it be an authority since it has limitless resources, but it would also be a moral one since it has the foresight to know precisely if an action is ultimately rational or not.

Well, since you went off the rails in the first step, and reference something that I don;t grant credence to in the next...it;s not surprising that..when you go telling us about what "ultimate" must mean here I neither agree nor care.

I'm not sure why you seem to think something "akin to a god" is the ultimate moral authority. Even imagining that the moral authority needs a will, to align itself to will fulfillment, and have the most resources available to achieve that....the "ultimate moral authority" could be a guy in Jersey named Joe.

Honestly,. I don't think that there was a single mention of a credible morality, let alone a credible moral authority, in that entire post.