Sovereignty Is Of The Individual
November 7th 2025
It's a metaphysical fact all humans are sovereign because it's inextricably part of our nature to think, judge, choose and act to sustain our lives. No matter if peasant or emperor.
✅ 1. History Of Sovereignty
Historically, “sovereignty” meant:
A. Medieval & Early Modern Period
Sovereign = the supreme ruler, the one with final authority.
Power was justified by divine right or hereditary authority.
This was subjective, not rational.
B. Enlightenment (Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau)
Sovereignty began shifting from a ruler to the people:
Hobbes: sovereignty = necessary absolute authority to avoid chaos
Locke: sovereignty = individuals, who delegate limited powers to government
Rousseau: sovereignty = the “general will” (collective)
C. Modern Liberal Philosophy
Sovereignty becomes: the ultimate moral authority resides in the individual, not the state.
✅ 2. Objective Definition Of Sovereignty
Sovereignty is the inherent authority, derived from capacity, of a rational being to govern their life, exercise their judgment, and act according to their values, limited only by the equal sovereignty of others.
This means:
Sovereignty originates in nature, not society.
It is not granted by rulers, majorities, priests, elites, or governments.
It is inherent in the type of entity a person is:
a self-directing, concept-using, choice-making rational agent.
This makes sovereignty inviolable, unearned, and unranked.
Sovereignty is the basis of why humans have the right to liberty and thus are moral agents.
We have the right to liberty, to act, because we are sovereign by the nature of being an intelligent organism which must think and volitionally reason to survive.
Sovereignty = Conceptually conscious being which must use volitional rationality to live.
✅ 3. Sovereignty Is Objective & Universal
Sovereignty rests on these factual premises:
Life is the ultimate value.
Reason is the means of living.
Choice is the mode through which reason operates.
Therefore, freedom (the power to choose) is the necessary condition for life.
From these, sovereignty emerges as a logical necessity, based on actuality.
✅ (1) Judgement is personal
No one else can think for you.
No one else can experience your values.
No one else can choose your actions.
This alone makes each man and woman sovereign by metaphysical fact.
✅ (2) Intelligence differences do not negate sovereignty
Why?
Because sovereignty is based on:
the capacity to be an agent,
NOT the degree of intelligence.
A human with 90 IQ still:
Thinks
Chooses
Values
Acts
Experiences pain and joy
Can be harmed
Can be coerced
Survives via reason (even if at a lower level)
The kind is the same; only the degree differs.
Sovereignty is based on kind, not degree.
✅ (3) If one person’s sovereignty is denied, sovereignty collapses for all
If Person A can override Person B’s choices “because they are smarter,”
then a smarter person can override Person A’s choices for the same reason.
This dissolves sovereignty entirely, creating a chain of domination with no principled endpoint.
It is inherently unstable, contradictory, and ungrounded.
✅ (4) The only consistent principle is: all rational beings possess equal sovereignty
“Equal” means:
equal moral authority over their own life,
not equal abilities, virtues, outcomes, or knowledge.
✅ 4. A Defense Against Elitist Objections
OBJECTION 1
"Only the intelligent should be sovereign, because only they can rule well."
Answer:
Sovereignty is not measured by competence but by metaphysical identity.
Humans are self-directing beings by nature.
No amount of intelligence gives someone access to another person’s consciousness.
To claim otherwise is:
Logically inconsistent
Impossible to apply universally
A gateway to tyranny
Based on a false premise:
that sovereignty comes from ability, not identity
OBJECTION 2
"The masses are too stupid to rule themselves."
Answer:
Rule themselves = make choices for their own lives,
NOT govern a nation.
You don't need high intelligence to:
Choose your job, partner, home
Protect your values
Learn through trial
Avoid harm
Pursue happiness
Sovereignty = self-direction
not political expertise.
OBJECTION 3
"We are superior; therefore we have superior rights."
Answer:
If superiority determined rights, then:
The stronger could kill the weaker,
The faster could enslave the slower,
The charismatic could rule the shy,
AI (stronger intellect) would have the right to dominate humans,
Animals or aliens with superior senses would have rights over humans.
It collapses into might makes right — which cannot be universalized, cannot be justified, and cannot be applied without contradiction.
Even the mightiest can't stay mighty for long...
OBJECTION 4
"Some people don't use reason, so they forfeit sovereignty."
Answer:
Failure to use reason does NOT dissolve sovereignty.
It only dissolves your ability to flourish.
Rights are lost (temporarily suspended) only when one initiates force.
Not when one is ignorant, mistaken, irrational, or foolish.
OBJECTION 5
"Hierarchy is natural, so political hierarchy is justified."
Answer:
Hierarchy of talent is natural.
Hierarchy of rights is not.
Mixing the two is a category error.
Rights protect the low-performing from predation by the high-performing —
and protect the high-performing from being dragged down by the low-performing.
Rights are the universal equalizer.
✅ 5. Everyone Benefits When Everyone Is Sovereign
When all individuals are sovereign:
✅ 1. Trade replaces coercion
Everyone gains
Innovation increases
Wealth rises
Cooperation replaces parasitism
✅ 2. Mutual respect becomes the only stable mode of interaction
Coercion results in:
Endless conflict
Instability
Paranoia
Repression
Destruction of value
Freedom produces:
Trust
Specialization
Prosperity
Long-term flourishing
✅ 3. Even the "elite" benefit more from freedom than domination
History shows:
Tyrants always fall
Controlling others is expensive
Controlled populations produce less wealth
Oppression breeds rebellion
Innovation dies under tyranny
No tyrant is safe
A world of sovereign individuals is the most profitable world for everyone.
✅ 6. Individual Sovereignty
Sovereignty = the inherent authority of a rational being to govern their own life.
It is:
Derived from human nature
Grounded in reason
Universal
Equal
Inalienable
Non-hierarchical
Consistent with survival
The only stable moral principle
The only structure that maximizes prosperity
The strongest defense against elitism and domination
We are ALL sovereign. It's not a matter of semantics, it's a fact of our identity as human beings.
✅ “Why is sovereignty the authority to think, judge, choose, and act for oneself?”
Because no one else can do those for you.
Thought is non-transferable, judgment is non-transferable, choice is non-transferable, responsibility is non-transferable.
Sovereignty is simply the name for the basic fact that your mind is yours alone.
This also knocks down paternalism and authoritarianism instantly.
“Life is a biological fact.
Sovereignty is a psychological fact of a conceptual consciousness.”
This provides a two-part foundation:
A being that is alive has something to protect.
A being that can conceptualize how to protect that life has rights.
This already knocks out speciesism, elitism, divine command claims, or arbitrary hierarchies.
✅ How Sovereignty Is Derived From Volitional Rationality
Co-dependence:
Life gives the basis; sovereignty gives the method.
Rights protect the method so life can continue.
The interconnecting hinge between life and sovereignty is volitional reason.
That link is crucial because it explains why conceptual consciousness is special and why only certain beings can participate in a rights system.
Volitional Reason and Rights (succinct formulation):
A rights-bearing being must possess volitional reason: the capacity to choose whether to think, evaluate, judge, and act.
Volitional reason is what makes conceptual consciousness possible, and conceptual consciousness is what makes moral agency possible.
Without free choice in cognition, there can be no genuine judgment, no responsibility, no reciprocity, and no grasp of the Golden Rule of equity.
A being without volitional reason cannot understand rights nor participate in a system of mutual non-violation.
Thus:
Life provides the value to protect; volitional reason provides the method of protecting it; sovereignty is the expression of this fact; and rights are the social recognition of sovereignty.
✅ 7. Taxonomy Of Sovereignty
Sovereignty isn’t a sliding scale of human worth. It’s a classification of how a rational being can exercise their natural rights at different stages or conditions of life. Every human being holds core rights by virtue of their nature. What varies is their practical capacity to exercise certain liberties and responsibilities.
✅ 1. Sovereign Adults
These are mature individuals with the full cognitive, emotional, and moral capacities required for independent, volitional life. They can understand rights, form contracts, take responsibility for their choices, and engage in reciprocal moral agency.
They possess full sovereignty and exercise the complete set of adult liberties and duties.
✅ 2. Immature Sovereigns (Children)
Children are sovereign in kind but not yet fully in function. Their rights are real, but their capacity to exercise complex liberties is still developing.
They require guardianship, not because they lack moral worth, but because they have not yet acquired the judgment needed for self-direction.
The role of guardians is custodial and preparatory: protecting the child’s life and nurturing the growth of their future sovereignty.
✅ 3. Supported Sovereigns (Assisted Adults)
These are adults who retain legal sovereignty but need structured support to navigate certain decisions or responsibilities.
Examples include adults with mild cognitive impairment, certain mental health conditions, or situational limitations (like recovering from trauma or illness).
Supports may take the form of advisors, trustees, financial stewards, healthcare proxies, or decision-aids.
The purpose is always to maximize autonomy, not replace it. The adult remains the primary agent; assistance merely stabilizes or enhances their decision-making.
✅ 4. Impaired Sovereigns (Temporary or Progressive Loss of Capacity)
This category includes adults experiencing substantial but not necessarily permanent loss of rational capacity: traumatic brain injury, dementia, psychosis, severe neurological illness etc.
They retain their inherent rights but may lack the competence to safely exercise certain liberties.
In these cases, provisional guardianship may be imposed, strictly limited in scope and subject to regular review.
The goal is restoration where possible and protection where necessary, with respect for the individual’s prior values, wishes, and identity.
✅ 5. Permanently Non-Sovereign Humans
These are individuals whose intellectual or neurological impairments are so severe and irreversible that they will never develop (or never recover) the capacity for conceptual judgment or reciprocal moral agency.
Examples include profound intellectual disability, catastrophic brain damage, anencephaly, or irreversible states, such as old age, where higher cognition is permanently absent.
✅ How, Not If
Sovereignty describes how a human being exercises their rights, not whether they have them. The degree of capacity shapes their responsibility and liberty.
✅ How to teach someone they're sovereign with 3 questions
1. Can anyone else think for you?
2. Can anyone else make all your choices for you?
3. Can anyone else experience all your values for you?
No, you must think, choose and act to survive biologically and psychologically. You are sovereign by metaphysical fact of being human.
Your particular nature and identity as a living individual makes you irrefutably sovereign.
You don't have a choice about it, just as you don't have a choice about being human.
You're a self determined, fully autonomous, moral agent.
Anything and everything you do is up to you.
Your life is your own, it belongs to you and only you.
You're responsible for all your judgements and accountable for all your actions.
You're not a robot or ai automaton.
You have self mastery, which means you have the power to think and act for yourself.
With great power comes great responsibility, use it wisely.