Authority is a concept with no clear-cut or unambiguous definition. On the contrary it raises many questions, such as the following: Is it you either have authority or are you an authority figure? If it is a notion you have on occasions, is it acquired once and for all? In what way? Is authority granted in a gesture of passive subordination or in an act of mental approval for the primacy of the authority’s judgment over one’s own? Is one an authority figure in general or only within a specific field of knowledge? For ever or only for a limited time? Can authority figures be wrong about something or should they be infallible? Is it a privilege or a duty? Where does animosity towards authority figures derive from? There is no single answer to these questions, which we face when considering authority. This dissertation examines them in the hope that, against all odds, a portion of understanding might emerge if not of the notion then of the phenomenon, which in its ambiguity never stops to appeal.