Severing law from embodied moral tradition makes state force its sole authority

Evidence

If traditionally embodied conceptions of justice and unconsciously assimilated experience are no longer relevant to the maintenance of law’s authority, then that authority will depend entirely on the force of the state expressed through its codes. — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular, 1155

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: A compressed causal claim worth sitting with: what happens to legal authority when the moral substrate is declared irrelevant? Force alone fills the gap.
• XREF: connects to: Perverted justice under legal forms still constitutes a state of war — John Locke, Second Treatise of Government, 28; Laws are symptoms of social morality, not its cause — Lawrence M. Friedman and Grant M. Hayden, American Law: An Introduction, 823; Civil disobedience challenges formally valid laws in the name of higher duty — Lawrence M. Friedman and Grant M. Hayden, American Law: An Introduction, 1191 (+1 more)