su-ra · W248
sura · authority; structured/institutionally-ordered power · ✅
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| Domain | Philosophy / Politics |
| Class | entity / structure / relation |
| Type | compound |
| Register | formal |
| First use | ANV-001-I (S1084): su-ra ne no o-ra / ne no ka-ra — "Authority is neither collective power nor violence." (Arendt, On Violence) |
Composition
su (structure/order) + ra (force/energy). Head-final: ra (force) is head; su specifies the mode — structured, institutionalized, hierarchically ordered. Contrast: ra-su = power-structure (the system); su-ra = structured-power (power that IS structured = authority).
Definition
su (structure/order) + ra (force) = structured force = institutionally-ordered, recognized power = authority. Arendt's Authority: legitimate hierarchical power operating through acknowledgment rather than compulsion. Distinct from o-ra (collective power, arises from common action) and ka-ra (W222, violence, compels through implements). Arendt: "Authority precludes the use of external means of coercion; where force is used, authority itself has failed." Note: wife'atofeka (W246) references su-ra as "structural force" in the legitimized-epistemic-closure precondition cascade (S872).
Related
su (primitive: structure/order), ra (primitive: force/energy), o-ra (compositional: collective power — authority is not this, S1084), ka-ra (W222: violence — authority is not this, S1084), wi-ra-ki (W241: state terror — what authority degrades into when it fails), wife'atofeka (W246: references su-ra as precondition stage 2, S872)
In the corpus
2 attestations.
| S# | Tonesu |
|---|---|
| S867 | la-su-ra ki lo-wife'atofeka"Structural force drives / maintains legitimized epistemic closure." |
| S872 | la-no-ne-zo-li ; la-su-ra ; la-a-ra-su ne wife'atofeka"Atomization; structural force; the total-power-structure is legitimized epistemic closure." |
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Generated from registry/entries.yaml.