The logic of power in the Livro de vertuosa benfeytoria

Abstract

Organized around a specular structure, the Vertuosa Benfeyturia presents a theory of power that is grounded in which conceives power as originally established by God, and unfold a differentiation between power and use of power, between Power-Institution and Ruler. Power in abstract that unfold in three different types of effective implementation: Auctoritas, Dominium
and Political Power, being the Political Power the correlate of organized human society, whose incarnation in a particular form of regime – monarchy – seeks naturalization, in order to present it as the sole and necessary government of men type. Government for the community’s common good, where the ruler appears not as a rights holder but as
obligated to duty. Oficium which imposes precepts whose failure can lead to the power holder’s deposition. Prevalence of the common good that does not prevent society from being organized around a fundamental and naturalized inequality. In the end, a utopia: the return to innocence of origins, with the abolition of political power, and the emergence of a power without power, founded on love and on gift.

https://doi.org/10.14195/1645-2259_16_4