Might-right doctrine became naturalized into judgments on human qualities

Evidence

In his reception and application of Spinoza’s political ideas, might was changed into conquest and conquest acted as a kind of unique judgment on the natural qualities and human privileges of men and nations. In this we may detect the first traces of later naturalistic transformations the might-right doctrine was to go through. — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 438

Categorization

• DEFINE: Traces the mechanism by which a political doctrine (might equals right) transforms into a naturalistic one (conquest reveals inherent human rank), a key step in the genealogy of race-thinking.
• XREF: This naturalizing of might into inherent quality anticipates later biopolitical claims Arendt develops; connects to Foucault’s genealogy and to how racial hierarchy gets cast as natural fact.