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Trust Me, I'M A Pragmatist: A Partially Pragmatic Critique Of Pragmatic Activism, Joshua Galperin
Trust Me, I'M A Pragmatist: A Partially Pragmatic Critique Of Pragmatic Activism, Joshua Galperin
Articles
Pragmatism is a robust philosophy, vernacular hand waiving, a method of judicial and administrative decisionmaking, and, more recently, justification for a certain type of political activism. While philosophical, judicial, and administrative pragmatism have garnered substantial attention and analysis from scholars, we have been much stingier with pragmatic activism — that which, in the spirit of the 21st Century’s 140-character limit, I will call “pragtivism.” This Article is intended as an introduction to pragtivism, a critique of the practice, and a constructive framework for addressing some of my critiques.
To highlight the contours of pragtivism, this Article tells the story of …
Law, Philosophy, And Civil Disobedience: The Laws' Speech In Plato's 'Crito', Steven Thomason
Law, Philosophy, And Civil Disobedience: The Laws' Speech In Plato's 'Crito', Steven Thomason
Articles
Plato's 'Crito' is an examination of the tension between political science, a life devoted to the rational discourse and the critique of politics, and the demands of allegiance and service to the city. The argument Socrates makes in the name of the laws is not just meant to persuade Crito. Rather, it is a philosophic defense of the city itself, the philosophic response to Socrates' own speech in the Apology defending philosophy. This speech reveals the dangers and problems of a life devoted to philosophy when reason is directed to politics and calls into question the values and way of …
Money As Measure, David G. Carlson
The Moral Dimension Of Employment Dispute Resolution, Theodore J. St. Antoine
The Moral Dimension Of Employment Dispute Resolution, Theodore J. St. Antoine
Articles
Dispute resolution may be viewed from the perspective of economics or negotiation or contract law or game theory or even military strategy. In this Article, I should like to consider employment dispute resolution in particular from the perspective of morality. I do not necessarily mean "morality" in any religious sense. By "morality" here I mean a concern about the inherent dignity and worth of every human being and the way each one should be treated by society. Some persons who best exemplify that attitude would style themselves secular humanists. Nonetheless, over the centuries religions across the globe have played a …
Indivisibility And Linkage Arguments: A Reply To Gilabert, James W. Nickel
Indivisibility And Linkage Arguments: A Reply To Gilabert, James W. Nickel
Articles
This reply discusses Pablo Gilabert's response to my article, "Rethinking Indivisibility." It welcomes his distinction between conceptual, normative, epistemic, and causal forms of support from one right to another. It denies, however, that "Rethinking Indivisibility" downplayed linkage arguments for human rights (although it did call for careful evaluation of such arguments), and rejects Gilabert's suggestion that we understand the indivisibility of two rights as two rights being highly useful to each other (interdependence) rather than as mutual indispensability. In the final section, I offer two new worries about the system-wide indivisibility of human rights.
Welfare As Happiness, John Bronsteen, Christopher Buccafusco, Jonathan Masur
Welfare As Happiness, John Bronsteen, Christopher Buccafusco, Jonathan Masur
Articles
Perhaps the most important goal of law and policy is improving people’s lives. But what constitutes improvement? What is quality of life, and how can it be measured? In previous articles, we have used insights from the new field of hedonic psychology to analyze central questions in civil and criminal justice, and we now apply those insights to a broader inquiry: how can the law make life better? The leading accounts of human welfare in law, economics, and philosophy are preference-satisfaction - getting what one wants - and objective list approaches - possessing an enumerated set of capabilities. This Article …
Preface (On Alain Badiou’S Handwriting), Peter Goodrich
Preface (On Alain Badiou’S Handwriting), Peter Goodrich
Articles
No abstract provided.
The Questioning Attitude: Questions About Derrida, Martin J. Stone
The Questioning Attitude: Questions About Derrida, Martin J. Stone
Articles
No abstract provided.
J.D., Peter Goodrich
Why Are There Four Hegelian Judgments, David G. Carlson
Why Are There Four Hegelian Judgments, David G. Carlson
Articles
Hegel is the philosopher of threes. His entire system is triune: logic-nature-spirit. Within the logic is a triune structure: being, essence, notion. Within notion there is a triad: subject-object-idea. Within subjectivity, there is a triad: notion, judgment, syllogism. Yet when we examine Hegel's critique of judgment, there are four (not three): inherence-reflection-necessity-notion.
This paper tries to explain why this is so. There is a disturbing element present at all times in Hegel's logic - what Slavoj Zizek named a silent fourth, which erupts and manifests itself in judgment. This paper refines and justifies Zizek's insight, arguing from the text of …
The Antepenultimacy Of The Beginning In Hegel’S Science Of Logic, David G. Carlson
The Antepenultimacy Of The Beginning In Hegel’S Science Of Logic, David G. Carlson
Articles
The Science of Logic is the keystone for Hegel's philosophy. Perhaps the single most perplexing problem in this work is the status of the beginning. Hegel insisted that philosophy must be self-grounding. It cannot start from "givens." Yet, if Hegel's beginning is merely stipulated or "given," then his project is defeated. The usual view of Hegel's intent is that the beginning (Pure Being) is the last step, so that what begins as a presupposition ends up being "proven." This article suggests something different. It proposes that the beginning (Pure Being) is actually the "antepenultimate" (or third-from-last) step of the Science …
A Fragment On Cnutism With Brief Divagations On The Philosophy Of The Near Miss, Peter Goodrich
A Fragment On Cnutism With Brief Divagations On The Philosophy Of The Near Miss, Peter Goodrich
Articles
This fragment is taken, mid-sentence as it were, from a longer discourse. It is plucked in process from a discussion of friendship for ideas. It is part of a longer journey through the annals of amity. The fragment also examines a fragment, a gloss on a text, a marginal comment, a handwritten note, which is taken to constitute the modern origin of Cnutism.
The Appearance Of Right And The Essence Of Wrong: Metaphor And Metonymy In Law, Jeanne L. Schroeder, David G. Carlson
The Appearance Of Right And The Essence Of Wrong: Metaphor And Metonymy In Law, Jeanne L. Schroeder, David G. Carlson
Articles
No abstract provided.
Nietzsche And Aretaic Legal Theory, Kyron Huigens
Spinoza's Identity And Philosophy: Jewish Or Otherwise?, Suzanne Last Stone
Spinoza's Identity And Philosophy: Jewish Or Otherwise?, Suzanne Last Stone
Articles
No abstract provided.
Was Spinoza A Jewish Philosopher, J. David Bleich
Paul, Pomo, And The Legitimacy Of Choice Post 9/11: A Brief Comment On Three Papers, Richard H. Weisberg
Paul, Pomo, And The Legitimacy Of Choice Post 9/11: A Brief Comment On Three Papers, Richard H. Weisberg
Articles
No abstract provided.
How To Be A Moorean, Donald H. Regan
How To Be A Moorean, Donald H. Regan
Articles
G. E. Moore’s position in the moral philosophy canon is paradoxical. On the one hand, he is widely regarded as the most influential moral philosopher of the twentieth century. On the other hand, his most characteristic doctrines are now more often ridiculed than defended or even discussed seriously. I shall discuss briefly a number of Moorean topics—the nonnaturalness of “good,” the open question argument, the relation of the right and the good, whether fundamental value is intrinsic, and the role of beauty—hoping to explain how a philosophically informed person could actually be a Moorean even today.1
Spinoza's Dialectic And The Paradoxes Of Tolerance: A Foundation For Pluralism, Michel Rosenfeld
Spinoza's Dialectic And The Paradoxes Of Tolerance: A Foundation For Pluralism, Michel Rosenfeld
Articles
Tolerance and pluralism seem to draw on the same criterion of legitimacy. The liberal case for tolerance, however, leads to a series of paradoxes, including Popper's paradox of tolerance according to which tolerating theintolerant is self-defeating. Spinoza's defense of tolerance as it emergesfrom his Theological-Political Treatise and his Ethics is more pervasive and much more encompasssing than the liberal justification. Spinoza justifies tolerance as a private and public virtue as well as on prudential grounds. Although Spinoza's conception of tolerance appears in significant respects paradoxical and contradictory - e.g., it is puzzling why Spinoza, the philosopher of reason, should avocate …
Can Lawyers Be Cured?: Eternal Recurrence And The Lacanian Death Drive, Jeanne L. Schroeder
Can Lawyers Be Cured?: Eternal Recurrence And The Lacanian Death Drive, Jeanne L. Schroeder
Articles
No abstract provided.
Nietzsche And The Nazis: The Impact Of National Socialism On The Philosophy Of Nietzsche, Charles M. Yablon
Nietzsche And The Nazis: The Impact Of National Socialism On The Philosophy Of Nietzsche, Charles M. Yablon
Articles
No abstract provided.
The Value Of Rational Nature, Donald H. Regan
The Value Of Rational Nature, Donald H. Regan
Articles
Kant tells us in the Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals that rational nature is an end in itself; that it is the only thing which is unconditionally valuable; and that it is the ultimate condition of all value.1 A striking trend in recent Kant scholarship is to regard these value claims, rather than the formalism of universalizability, as the ultimate foundation of Kant’s theory.2 But does rational nature as Kant conceives it deserve such veneration? Can it really carry the world of value on its shoulders? I think not. As will become clear, I do not doubt the value …
Hegel’S Theory Of Quality, David G. Carlson
Hegel’S Theory Of Quality, David G. Carlson
Articles
This article assesses the opening three chapters of Hegel's monumental "Science of Logic," a work largely unknown in the United States but recognized in Europe as the foundation of Hegel's impressive philosophical edifice. Hegel's task was to develop a foundation-free philosophy, in which the inherent contradictions in concepts caused the self-destruction of the concept and the generation of a new, improved concept. Hegel begins his work by examining the concept of Pure Being. Being itself shows to be finite, however. Being repeals itself and propels itself into thought. "Reality" therefore gives way to "ideality." Upon entering the realm of the …
Linking The Visions, Donald H. Regan
Linking The Visions, Donald H. Regan
Articles
In my case, which may be unusual, the importance of my non-law training and commitments is not in specific contributions they make to my work in law. Rather, it is in their contributions to my being me.
Kenneth Starr: Diabolically Evil?, Jeanne L. Schroeder, David G. Carlson
Kenneth Starr: Diabolically Evil?, Jeanne L. Schroeder, David G. Carlson
Articles
No abstract provided.
Origins Of The Game Theory Of Law And The Limits Of Harmony In Plato's Laws, Arthur J. Jacobson
Origins Of The Game Theory Of Law And The Limits Of Harmony In Plato's Laws, Arthur J. Jacobson
Articles
In his last dialogue, the Laws, Plato views citizens in the polis as players in a game. Just as contemporary game theory, Plato considers games to be states of strategic interaction. Yet the game of the Laws differs from those of game theory in one important respect. Where game theory assumes that players are rational--that they choose strategies, or rules for taking action at each instant of a game, in order to maximize payoffs--Plato explores the conditions under which rationality, as game theory defines it, is possible.
Plato thus agrees with game theory that rational, maximizing behavior is a necessary …
Introduction, David G. Carlson
Pragmatism, Pluralism, And Legal Interpretation: Posner's And Rorty's Justice Without Metaphysics Meets Hate Speech, Michel Rosenfeld
Pragmatism, Pluralism, And Legal Interpretation: Posner's And Rorty's Justice Without Metaphysics Meets Hate Speech, Michel Rosenfeld
Articles
No abstract provided.
Habermas And The Postal Rule, Peter Goodrich
Preface, Michel Rosenfeld