DOCSLIB.ORG

The History of Harvard University

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The History of Harvard University Freedom from Value Judgments: Value-Free Social Science and Objectivity in Germany, 1880-1914 The Harvard community has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters. Citation No citation. Accessed February 19, 2015 12:58:00 PM EST Citable Link http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:10947518 Terms of Use This article was downloaded from Harvard University's DASH repository, and is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth at http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of- use#LAA (Article begins on next page) Freedom from Value Judgments: Value-Free Social Science and Objectivity in Germany, 1880-1914 A dissertation presented by Andrew Jeffrey Spadafora to The Department of History in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the subject of History Harvard University Cambridge, Massachusetts May 2013 © 2013 Andrew Jeffrey Spadafora All rights reserved. Dissertation Adviser: Peter Gordon Andrew Jeffrey Spadafora Freedom from Value Judgments: Value-Free Social Science and Objectivity in Germany, 1880-1914 Abstract This dissertation addresses a central issue in the methodological debates that raged in the German academy around the turn of the twentieth century. The idea of “value-free” social science, or “value-freedom,” was passed down to subsequent decades as a way of thinking about the objectivity of knowledge, but because of its name it has been widely misunderstood. Moreover, it has been seen either as a clever invention of the polymath scholar Max Weber, or as some form of ideology masquerading as neutrality (or both). Instead, a contextually sensitive historical analysis of the work of five German and Austrian scholars—Carl Menger, Ferdinand Tönnies, Georg Jellinek, Hermann Kantorowicz, and Gustav Radbruch—demonstrates that value-freedom was a complex doctrine with widely ramified sources in the intellectual history of economics, sociology, and law. It was accepted on a variety of grounds and by individuals of differing personalities, politics, philosophical training, and academic disciplines. “Value-free” social science in the work of these men meant anything but the removal of values from scholarly consideration. Instead, its advocates promoted a focus on the subjectivity and the will of the individual, goal-directed agent. Value-freedom took the form of several interrelated distinctions, between theory and practice, fact and value, “is” and “ought,” means and ends; but each of these scholars coupled his preferred formulation with the shared view that human values are incapable of rational justification. They insisted on the importance of the analytical separation of the positive and normative but recognized a legitimate role for the social sciences in the positive discussion of values. However, the attempt to bridge the subjective world of human values and the objective world of social scientific fact foundered for most of them on the inherently subjective choices made by the individual scholar, leading them to face the possibility that value-freedom could not provide a successful theory of objectivity without reformulation. The dissertation spans three decades and several disciplines, including the work of important jurists whose social scientific credentials have been neglected owing to their disciplinary backgrounds. iii Contents Acknowledgements v Chapter 1: Introduction: Value Freedom and Objectivity in Max Weber’s Germany 1 Part I. Economics and Sociology Chapter 2: “Ethical” Political Economy and “Value-Free” Economics in the Era of the of the Methodenstreit: The German Historical School and Carl Menger 41 Chapter 3: Ferdinand Tönnies on the Subjectivity of Values and “Value-Free” Science 146 Part II. Law Chapter 4: Law as “Value-Free” Social Science: Georg Jellinek and Hermann Kantorowicz 213 Chapter 5: Gustav Radbruch and Neo-Kantian Philosophy of Law 299 Chapter 6: Conclusion 355 Bibliography 359 iv Acknowledgements I wish to express to the adviser of this dissertation, Peter Gordon, my grateful appreciation for his guidance, encouragement, and counsel throughout this project. I am also thankful for the support, assistance, and suggestions of the other readers of the dissertation, David Blackbourn and Emma Rothschild. These members of the Harvard History Department have helped me to see my way toward a doctoral dissertation project that could be successfully accomplished, and they have provided me with many insights and saved me from many errors along the way. Needless to say, the faults that remain in this dissertation are my own. The library-based research for this project was largely carried out at the incomparable Harvard University Libraries, and occasionally at the Newberry Library in Chicago. In Germany, archival research at the Geheimes Staatsarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz in Berlin, the Universitätsarchiv of the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität in Freiburg im Breisgau, the Universitätsbibliothek of the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität in Heidelberg, the Schleswig- Holsteinische Landesbibliothek in Kiel, and the Bundesarchiv in Koblenz was carried out with the support of fellowships from the Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, for which I am grateful. I owe appreciation to an array of German librarians and curators for their assistance in gaining access to under-appreciated and under-utilized manuscript materials, and for in a few instances helping me puzzle out some very bad late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century German handwriting. To my parents, Carolyn and David Spadafora, to my sister Claire Spadafora, and to Maggie Schallau, I owe more than I can hope to express here. Their enduring personal support has maintained me throughout the challenging years of this project, and their love remains the center of my life. Cambridge, Massachusetts May 16, 2013 v Chapter 1. Introduction: Value-Freedom and Objectivity in Max Weber’s Germany This is a study of a badly named but highly influential concept. In the course of the twentieth century, many European and especially American practitioners of social science who were concerned to justify the objectivity of their work began to refer to it as “value-free.”1 Although never lacking critics, the term gained popularity among practicing social and natural scientists and even among philosophers of science in the two decades after the Second World War, and the ostensible idea behind it achieved a kind of commonsense status.2 Like many terms that suddenly enjoy a vogue, the predicate “value-free” was not given a rigorous definition, but its meaning seemed readily apparent. The social or natural sciences would reach the desired “objective” status when practicing scientists3 had suitably excluded their values from their analyses and proceeded to deal solely with the facts they were endeavoring to explain. Or so it appeared. Of course, the complete removal of values from any science, let alone from social science, was impossible; anyone claiming to be a practitioner of “value-free” social science in this commonsense understanding of the term was mistaken. For as a wide body of philosophical literature has shown in the subsequent decades, it is not possible even for natural scientists to set their values aside completely. At a minimum, those that came to be known as 1 See the essays on particular social science disciplines in Theodore M. Porter and Dorothy Ross, eds., The Cambridge History of Science, Vol. 7, The Modern Social Sciences (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008), e.g. Dorothy Ross, “Changing Contours of the Social Science Disciplines,” 217-218; James Farr, “Political Science,” 316-318; Robert C. Bannister, “Sociology,” 335, 346; Dorothy Ross, The Origins of American Social Science (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991), 429. 2 On the postwar history of the idea, principally from a philosophy of science perspective, see Heather E. Douglas, Science, Policy, and the Value-Free Ideal (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2009), 46-65. 3 Throughout this dissertation, the words “science” and “scientist” are used as translations of the German Wissenschaft and Wissenschaftler, to indicate an “organized body of knowledge” and the scholars who produce it, rather than according to the common English meaning of “natural science” or “natural scientist.” Science and scholarship are treated as synonyms. This usage is purely for purposes of convenience and does not imply any identification of the social sciences with the natural sciences. 1 “epistemic” or “cognitive” values, such as “accuracy, consistency, predictive and explanatory scope, simplicity and fruitfulness in generating research puzzles…, instrumental efficacy… or ‘prediction and control,’… [a] high degree of falsifiability,” and many others, were necessary to determine what counted as an effective theory.4 A chorus of critics has argued, often plausibly, that even this distinction between epistemic values internal to the sciences on the one hand, and personal or social values on the other, is impossible to draw consistently.5 The philosopher Hilary Putnam offers an important case in point. His work contends that the concept of a clear-cut dichotomy or dualism (as opposed to a softer “distinction”) between the categories of “fact” and “value,” which lies at the heart of the “value-free” science ideal, is not justifiable, owing especially to linguistic and epistemic
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Summary of Academical Accomplishments 1. Christoph-Eric
    Summary of academical accomplishments 1. Christoph-Eric Mecke 2. Diploma of general studies of French law (“Diplôme d'Études Juridiques Générales Françaises”) at the Faculty of Law and Economics of the University of Tours (France) obtained in 1986 after completing studies in France during one year. Diploma after legal studies at the Faculty of Law at the Georg August University in Göttingen obtained in 1991 (first state law examination). Diploma after a two-year law application in courts, public administration, public prosecutor's office and private law offices, conferral of the title of an assessor of law (entitles in Germany to practice as judge, prosecutor and attorney) granted by the High Court of Lower Saxony in Celle in 2007 (second state law examination). Degree of a Doctor of Legal Science awarded by the Council of the Faculty of Law at the Georg August University in Göttingen on July 17, 2007 on the basis of a comprehensive law examination (“Rigorosum”) and the presented monographic dissertation entitled Begriff und System des Rechts bei Georg Friedrich Puchta [= Concept and legal system in the legal thought of Georg Friedrich Puchta] marked with the highest possible final grade “summa cum laude”. 3. Information on employment in academic positions: 1991-1993 - junior researcher at the Department of Legal Theory at the Faculty of Law at the Georg August University in Göttingen; from February 1, 2008 to March 31, 2016 – researcher at the Department of Civil Law and History of Law and lecturer at the Faculty of Law at the Leibniz University in Hanover, there I’m still an academic teacher in the field of legal history from April 15, 2016 to December 31, 2017 – researcher at the Department of Roman Law and Pandetics at the Faculty of Law of the Georg August University in Göttingen; from January 1, 2018 until today – researcher and lecturer at the Brunswick European Law School at the Ostfalia University of Applied Sciences in Brunswick (Braunschweig).
    [Show full text]
  • Universidade Federal Do Rio Grande Do Sul (Ppgdir – UFRGS), Cujo Tema Foi “Puchta E a Ciência Das Pandectas”
    A CIÊNCIA DO DIREITO NA CONCEPÇÃO DE GEORG FRIEDRICH PUCHTA1 Albenir Itaboraí Querubini Gonçalves2 RESUMO: O presente trabalho analisa a compreensão do jurista alemão Georg Friederich Puchta sobre a Ciência do Direito e seus principais temas. PALAVRAS-CHAVE: Ciência do Direito. Escola Histórica do Direito. Metodologia do Direito. Fontes do Direito. Jurisprudence in Georg Friederich Puchta’s thought ABSTRACT: The present essay examines the German jurist Georg Friederich Puchta's understanding of Jurisprudence and its main themes. KEY WORDS: Jurisprudence. German Historical School of Law. Methodology of Law. Sources of Law. SUMÁRIO: 1 Introdução. 2 Breves apontamentos sobre a vida e a obra de Puchta. 3 Ideias iniciais: Ciência do Direito, diferenças e relações entre a Filosofia do Direito e a Jurisprudência, sistema e História do Direito, objeto da Ciência do Direito. 4 Sobre o desenvolvimento da ideia do Direito na história. 5 Sobre a origem e fontes do Direito, o Direito Consuetudinário, o Direito Legislativo, o Direito Científico, os modos de reconhecer o Direito e a sua mutação. 6 Considerações finais. 7 Referências bibliográficas. “A vida no tempo é um perene movimento, uma ininterrupta sucessão”. (Puchta) 1 INTRODUÇÃO O presente trabalho tem por finalidade realizar uma análise sobre a ideia e compreensão da Ciência do Direito (ou Jurisprudência) segundo a concepção desenvolvida pelo jurista alemão Georg Friedrich Puchta, que foi integrante da chamada Escola Histórica do Direito3, além de ser considerado o principal discípulo de Friedrich Carl von Savigny (1772-1840). 1 O presente texto foi elaborado com base em apresentação realizada no Seminário apresentado no dia 19 de outubro de 2009, na Disciplina “Temas de História do Direito: II – Codificação e Ciência Jurídica no Séc.
    [Show full text]
  • Books-Library.Online-10121733Gh1h9.Pdf
    Chapter 9 “Die Rechtssätze in ihrem systematischen Zusammenhang zu erkennen” – The Thrust of Legal Formalism 9.1 A Genealogy of Legal Concepts by Georg Friedrich Puchta The Historical School of Law, founded by Friedrich Carl von Savigny (1779–1861) at the early nineteenth century, underscored the historical essence and roots of law. It highlighted the role of the Volksgeist, i.e. the historically evolving “spirit of the nation” on the evolvement of the law. The Volksgeist of a nation found its paramount expression in the customary law and, in the more sophisticated legal systems, in the legal conceptions and doctrinal constructions created by the legal profession (Juristenrecht, Professorenrecht). Towards the end of the nineteenth century, the historicist notion of law became transformed into full-fledged con- ceptualist jurisprudence in Germany. A hierarchical system of legal concepts, as created by the legal science so as to deal with the legal issues, was placed at the centre of legal analysis. Among the German conceptualists there were Georg Friedrich Puchta (1798–1846), Bernhard Windscheid (1817–1892), and the young Rudolf von Jhering (1818–1892), who later turned into a vehement opponent and critic of legal formalism under the Interessenjurisprudence, or jurisprudence based on the analysis of social interests in law.1 It was Philipp Heck, himself a pro- ponent of the Interessenjurisprudenz, who introduced the openly pejorative term Begriffsjurisprudenz for the German conceptualists.2 According to the Begriffsjurisprudenz, there is an immutable logico-conceptual element in law “frozen’ in the legal concepts and their mutual systemic relations. Even earlier, the historical school of law had found the immutable element of law in the community-centred legal concepts, like the spirit of the nation (Volksgeist) and the “organically” evolving legal consciousness of its people.
    [Show full text]
  • 251 Chapter IX Revolution And
    251 Chapter IX Revolution and Law (1789 – 1856) The Collapse of the European States System The French Revolution of 1789 did not initialise the process leading to the collapse of the European states system but accelerated it. In the course of the revolution, demands became articulate that the ruled were not to be classed as subjects to rulers but ought to be recognised as citizens of states and members of nations and that, more fundamentally, the continuity of states was not a value in its own right but ought to be measured in terms of their usefulness for the making and the welfare of nations. The transformations of groups of subjects into nations of citizens took off in the political theory of the 1760s. Whereas Justus Lipsius and Thomas Hobbes1 had described the “state of nature” as a condition of human existence that might occur close to or even within their present time, during the later eighteenth century, theorists of politics and international relations started to position that condition further back in the past, thereby assuming that a long period of time had elapsed between the end of the “state of nature” and the making of states and societies, at least in some parts of the world. Moreover, these theorists regularly fused the theory of the hypothetical contract for the establishment of government, which had been assumed since the fourteenth century, with the theory of the social contract, which had only rarely been postulated before.2 In the view of later eighteenth-century theorists, the combination of both types of contract was to establish the nation as a society of citizens.3 Supporters of this novel theory of the combined government and social contract not merely considered human beings as capable of moving out from the “state of nature” into states, but also gave to humans the discretional mandate to first form their own nations as what came to be termed “civil societies”, before states could come into existence.4 Within states perceived in accordance with these theoretical suppositions, nationals remained bearers of sovereignty.
    [Show full text]
  • Theatre, Communism, and Love
    0/-*/&4637&: *ODPMMBCPSBUJPOXJUI6OHMVFJU XFIBWFTFUVQBTVSWFZ POMZUFORVFTUJPOT UP MFBSONPSFBCPVUIPXPQFOBDDFTTFCPPLTBSFEJTDPWFSFEBOEVTFE 8FSFBMMZWBMVFZPVSQBSUJDJQBUJPOQMFBTFUBLFQBSU $-*$,)&3& "OFMFDUSPOJDWFSTJPOPGUIJTCPPLJTGSFFMZBWBJMBCMF UIBOLTUP UIFTVQQPSUPGMJCSBSJFTXPSLJOHXJUI,OPXMFEHF6OMBUDIFE ,6JTBDPMMBCPSBUJWFJOJUJBUJWFEFTJHOFEUPNBLFIJHIRVBMJUZ CPPLT0QFO"DDFTTGPSUIFQVCMJDHPPE PASSIONATE AMATEURS Passionate Amateurs THEATRE, COMMUNISM, AND LOVE Nicholas Ridout THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN PRESS Ann Arbor Copyright © by the University of Michigan 2013 All rights reserved This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, including illustrations, in any form (beyond that copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law and except by reviewers for the public press), without written per- mission from the publisher. Published in the United States of America by The University of Michigan Press Manufactured in the United States of America c Printed on acid-free paper 2016 2015 2014 2013 4 3 2 1 A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in- Publication Data Ridout, Nicholas Peter. Passionate amateurs : theatre, communism, and love / Nicholas Ridout. pages cm. — (Theater—theory/text/performance) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0- 472- 11907- 3 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0- 472- 02959- 4 (e- book) 1. Theater and society. 2. Communism and culture. I. Title. PN2051.R53 2013 792—dc23 2013015596 For Isabel and Peter, my parents Acknowledgments Throughout the writing of this book I was fortunate to work in the De- partment of Drama at Queen Mary University of London. Colleagues and students alike made the department a truly stimulating and supportive place to be, to work, and to think. I am grateful to them all. I owe particu- lar thanks, for conversations that contributed in tangible ways to the de- velopment of this work, to Bridget Escolme, Jen Harvie, Michael McKin- nie, Lois Weaver, and Martin Welton.
    [Show full text]
  • Max Beckmann, Self-Portrait in Tuxedo,1927, Oil on Canvas, Harvard Art Museums/Busch-Reisinger Museum, Association Fund, BR41.37 107 CASTING
    106 CASTING_ OLD WORLD ART ON THE SOIL OF THE NEW Figure 1 Max Beckmann, Self-Portrait in Tuxedo,1927, Oil on canvas, Harvard Art Museums/Busch-Reisinger Museum, Association Fund, BR41.37 107 CASTING_ R Abstract S.311 Lynette Roth “OLD WORLD ART ON THE SOIL OF THE NEW” PLASTER CASTS AND THE GERMANIC MUSEUM AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY WITHOUT QUESTION, the work of art most readily asso- ciated with Harvard’s Busch-Reisinger Museum is Max Beckmann’s iconic Self-Portrait in Tuxedo Figure 1 . The first modern painting to enter the museum’s collection—in 1941—it depicts the artist at the height of his fame in the late 1920s.1 When it debuted in Berlin at the Secession exhibition in 1928 it was immediately recognized as a major work, one marking a new stylistic development in the artist’s use of large planes of colour, especially black. While the Beckmann portrait may have been the first modern painting in the museum, the first painting to enter the collection—in 1909 and also a portrait—was another one entirely: it was a recent likeness of German Emperor Wilhelm II by the academic painter Arthur Kampf Figure 2 . Not unlike Beckmann, the Kaiser was a man with a 108 CASTING_ OLD WORLD ART ON THE SOIL OF THE NEW Figure 2 Arthur Kampf, Portrait of Emperor William II of Germany, 1908, Oil on canvas Harvard Art Museums/Busch-Reisinger Museum, Gift of Mr. Hugo Reisinger, BR09.1 109 CASTING_ OLD WORLD ART ON THE SOIL OF THE NEW penchant for portraits of himself and a love of costume.
    [Show full text]
  • Reasonable Man’
    The University of Notre Dame Australia ResearchOnline@ND Theses 2019 The conjecture from the universality of objectivity in jurisprudential thought: The universal presence of a ‘reasonable man’ Johnny Sakr The University of Notre Dame Australia Follow this and additional works at: https://researchonline.nd.edu.au/theses Part of the Law Commons COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA Copyright Regulations 1969 WARNING The material in this communication may be subject to copyright under the Act. Any further copying or communication of this material by you may be the subject of copyright protection under the Act. Do not remove this notice. Publication Details Sakr, J. (2019). The conjecture from the universality of objectivity in jurisprudential thought: The universal presence of a ‘reasonable man’ (Master of Philosophy (School of Law)). University of Notre Dame Australia. https://researchonline.nd.edu.au/theses/215 This dissertation/thesis is brought to you by ResearchOnline@ND. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses by an authorized administrator of ResearchOnline@ND. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The Conjecture from the Universality of Objectivity in Jurisprudential Thought: The Universal Presence of a ‘Reasonable Man’ By Johnny Michael Sakr Submitted in accordance with the requirements of the degree of Master of Philosophy University of Notre Dame Australia School of Law February 2019 SYNOPSIS This thesis proposes that all legal systems use objective standards as an integral part of their conceptual foundation. To demonstrate this point, this thesis will show that Jewish law, ancient Athenian law, Roman law and canon law use an objective standard like English common law’s ‘reasonable person’ to judge human behaviour.
    [Show full text]
  • A History of German and Austrian Economic Thought on Health Issues
    RIJKSUNIVERSITEIT GRONINGEN A History of German and Austrian Economic Thought on Health Issues Proefschrift ter verkrijging van het doctoraat in de Rechtsgeleerdheid aan de Rijksuniversiteit Groningen op gezag van de Rector Magnificus, dr. F. Zwarts, in het openbaar te verdedigen op maandag 17 september 2007 om 13:15 uur door Ursula Margarete Backhaus geboren op 11 juni 1955 te Heilbronn-Sontheim, Duitsland 1 Promotor : Prof. dr. A. Nentjes Beoordelingscommissie : Prof. dr. O. Couwenberg Prof. dr. J. A. H. Maks Prof. dr. R. Zuidema ISSN: 0171-970X ISBN: 978-3-89846-490-1 2 Frankfurter Abhandlungen zu den gesamten Staatswissenschaften Band 6 Herausgegeben von Jürgen Backhaus, Erfurt, Stiftungsprofessur für Finanzwissenschaft und Finanzsoziologie Haag + Herchen Verlag GmbH, Fuchshohl 19a D-60431 Frankfurt am Main 3 4 5 Ursula Backhaus A History of German and Austrian Economic Thought on Health Issues 6 Samenvatting De ideeën van Paracelsus over gezondheid vanuit een sociaal-economische visie zijn al 500 jaar oud, maar werden eerst recent teruggevonden en toegankelijk gemaakt door een nieuwe editie van zijn sociaal-economisch werk. Ook de andere hier weergegeven inzichten over gezondheid en gezondheidszorg vanuit een economisch, sociaal en politiek perspectief zijn weinig bekend. In dit boek gaat het over de meest belangrijke ideeën van sociale wetenschappers en economen over gezondheid en gezondheidszorg, beginnend met Paracelsus en eindigend met Schumpeter. Behandeld worden grondleggende ideeën en concepten van Wolff, Justi, Roscher, Menger, Schmoller, Bücher, Oppenheimer en Althoff. De conclusie luidt dat hun bijdragen wel deels zijn te herkennen in de moderne gezondheidseconomie, maar dat wij toch ook belangrijke invalshoeken, die zouden voortvlooeien uit hun werk, vandaag missen.
    [Show full text]
  • Information to Users
    INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. UMI films the text directly from the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter face, while others may be from any type of computer printer. The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleedthrough, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send UMI a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Oversize materials (e.g., maps, drawings, charts) are reproduced by sectioning the original, beginning at the upper left-hand corner and continuing from left to right in equal sections with small overlaps. Each original is also photographed in one exposure and is included in reduced form at the back of the book. Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced xerographically in this copy. Higher quality 6" x 9" black and white photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI directly to order. University Microfilms International A Bell & Howell Information Company 300 North Zeeb Road. Ann Arbor. Ml 48106-1346 USA 313/761-4700 800/521-0600 Order Number 9316201 A history of women in Germanics, 1850-1950 Nagy, Ellen Manning, Ph.D. The Ohio State University, 1993 Copyright ©1993 by Nagy, Ellen Manning.
    [Show full text]
  • The Germanists and the Historical School of Law: German Legal Science Between Romanticism, Realism, and Rationalization
    Zeitschri des Max-Planck-Instituts für europäische Rechtsgeschichte Rechts R Journal of the Max Planck Institute for European Legal History geschichte g Rechtsgeschichte Legal History www.rg.mpg.de http://www.rg-rechtsgeschichte.de/rg24 Rg 24 2016 20 – 72 Zitiervorschlag: Rechtsgeschichte – Legal History Rg 24 (2016) http://dx.doi.org/10.12946/rg24/020-072 Gerhard Dilcher The Germanists and the Historical School of Law: German Legal Science between Romanticism, Realism, and Rationalization Dieser Beitrag steht unter einer Creative Commons cc-by-nc-nd 3.0 Abstract The essay, originally written in German as an introduction to a volume of collected papers, shows the influence of the Historical School of Law on legal, historical and social sciences in Germany throughout the 19th and even 20th cen- turies – a time span running contrary to the dominate view that sees the end of the School in themiddleofthe19th century. In my view the School constitutes not only a method for develop- ing norms of private law out of the historical materials of Roman and German-Germanic laws, but is based on a wider conception of culture, law and history that is also connected to the political positions of that time. In Savigny’s founding pam- phlet, »The vocation of our time ...«, two major theoretical topics for this long-lasting influence can be found: The Romantic one, which views law as a part of culture and parallel to language and cus- tom, based on the »spirit of the people«, and, on the other side, the rationality of the European tradition of Roman law, which was developed and administered by jurists.These two basic points, in part standing in contradiction to one another, form a fertile tension that provides an impulse to the intellectual discussions and new movements in jurisprudence and history analysed in the text.
    [Show full text]
  • How to Change the World Also by Eric Hobsbawm
    How to Change the World Also by Eric Hobsbawm The Age of Revolution 1789–1848 The Age of Capital 1848–1875 The Age of Empire 1875–1914 The Age of Extremes 1914–1991 Labouring Men Industry and Empire Bandits Revolutionaries Worlds of Labour Nations and Nationalism Since 1780 On History Uncommon People The New Century Globalisation, Democracy and Terrorism Interesting Times How to Change the World Reflections on Marx and Marxism Eric Hobsbawm New Haven & London To the memory of George Lichtheim This collection first published 2011 in the United States by Yale University Press and in Great Britain by Little, Brown. Copyright © 2011 by Eric Hobsbawm. All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, including illustrations, in any form (beyond that copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law and except by reviewers for the public press), without written permission from the publishers. Yale University Press books may be purchased in quantity for educational, business, or promotional use. For information, please e-mail [email protected] (U.S. office) or [email protected] (U.K. office). Typeset in Baskerville by M Rules. Printed in the United States of America. Library of Congress Control Number: 2011927314 ISBN 978-0-300-17616-2 (hardcover : alk. paper) A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper). 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Contents Foreword vii PART I: MARX AND ENGELS 1 Marx Today 3 2 Marx,
    [Show full text]
  • The Legal Academic of Max Weber's Tragic Modernity
    CORE Metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk Provided by Helsingin yliopiston digitaalinen arkisto The Legal Academic of Max Weber's Tragic Modernity Panu Minkkinen School of Law University of Leicester Juridical anti-intellectualism In George Ruggle's well-known comedy Ignoramus from 1615, a college recorder and common lawyer named Ambidexter Ignoramus is set against the humanistic ideals of the university environment in which the play was written and performed as well as set. Ignoramus is barely semi-literate in a hybrid of bastardised French and Low Latin that made up the legal jargon of his time, and his character is ridiculed for the lack of cultivation that epitomises the uneducated professional. Ignoramus, for his part, openly resents the academic refinement that he lacks: "universitants", as he calls his aspiring academic lawyers, will allegedly never make good clerks. "Logica? Quae villa, quod burgum est Logica?" (Ruggle 1787: 47 [I: iii]), he ripostes to Musaeus, an apprentice who defensively advocates his own university schooling in logic. For Ignoramus, an art that is liberal (artium liberalium) apparently only counsels in imprudent squandering, and only harlots can be the love objects of Musaeus's self-professed amor philosophiae. Ignoramus's responses are seemingly not rhetorical because his poor command of Latin sets limits to his use of figurative tropes (further on Ignoramus and the law, see Tucker 1977). 1 Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1423442 But perhaps it would not be too farfetched to claim that the comedic roles have been reversed since Ruggle's Jacobean times.
    [Show full text]