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The Unity Thesis: How Positivism Distorts Constitutional Argument, John Lunstroth
The Unity Thesis: How Positivism Distorts Constitutional Argument, John Lunstroth
John Lunstroth
The scientific revolution (or radical Enlightenment) distorted the way we understand the law by causing legal concepts, such as the idea of state, to be split into a scientific (positivist) part and a prudential (moral) part. The Unity Thesis gives us tools for understanding the mechanisms by which that happened and for mapping routes to the future that may be better for everyone. I illustrate using the US Constitution. The idea of the constitution we receive is already a scientific concept, originating in the ideas of state and common good that prevailed well into the 17th century. On the one …