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Republican Revival/Interpretive Turn, Stephen M. Feldman
Republican Revival/Interpretive Turn, Stephen M. Feldman
Stephen M. Feldman
The civic republican revival and the interpretive turn are two leading movements in constitutional jurisprudence. Civic republicanism emphasizes that citizens belong to a political community where they participate in a dialogue about the common good. Interpretivism, meanwhile, holds that all of our practices, including constitutional adjudication, are interpretive; we are always situated within interpretative communities and traditions that simultaneously constrain and enable understanding. Civic republicanism and interpretivism, however, both face serious challenges. Critics of the republican revival charge that it invites oppression and silencing of divergent voices because it emphasizes the community and the common good. Opponents of the interpretive …
The New Metaphysics: The Interpretive Turn In Jurisprudence, Stephen M. Feldman
The New Metaphysics: The Interpretive Turn In Jurisprudence, Stephen M. Feldman
Stephen M. Feldman
A debate between realists and antirealists has characterized western metaphysics. While metaphysical realists ground existence on an objective world, antirealists ground existence on a thinking subject and human culture. The argument in jurisprudence, as elsewhere, is that either we are capable of objective knowledge or we are doomed to free-floating subjectivism. We demand the impossible -- absolute objectivity -- to avoid the catastrophic -- unconstrained subjectivity. The interpretive turn attempts to move beyond this insoluble dilemma, the either/or of objectivity and subjectivity. Thus, in jurisprudence, the interpretive turn is well worth taking if only because it offers the possibility of …