The Normativity of Law: What Is the Problem?
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Fuller and the Folk: the Inner Morality of Law Revisited
Forthcoming in T. Lombrozo, J. Knobe, & S. Nichols (Eds.), Oxford Studies in Experimental Philosophy, Volume 3. Oxford: UK, Oxford University Press. Fuller and the Folk: The Inner Morality of Law Revisited Raff Donelson Ivar R. Hannikainen LOUISIANA STATE UNIVERSITY PONTIFICAL CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY [email protected] OF RIO DE JANEIRO [email protected] The philosophy of law, or jurisprudence, is an concept has—this empirical debate would area of study wherein experimental methods benefit from empirical research. In are largely absent but sorely needed. It is particular, we might seek out folk puzzling that the experimental turn has been psychological evidence, predicated on the slow in coming to jurisprudence, as the field positive impact such evidence has had in other straddles two disciplines where empirical domains of philosophy. evidence is increasingly common. On one The foregoing may not be convincing. flank, empirical studies have long been Traditional legal philosophers who do not use popular among non-philosophers in law empirical methods will need to hear more to departments; on the other, experimental appreciate why strange, new techniques methods now abound in many areas of might be appropriate. Experimental philosophy. philosophers who have yet to consider While it is difficult to understand why few jurisprudence will need to hear more about have adopted an experimental approach to the subfield and its issues to understand how jurisprudence, it is clear why experimental they might contribute. We hope to address jurisprudence should be on the agenda: legal such philosophers and others, but not with a philosophers routinely ask questions that are purely metaphilosophical tract. -
Philosophy 320: Knowledge and Assertion
Course Syllabus: Philosophy 320: Knowledge and Assertion Matthew A. Benton [email protected] Description This 300-level upper-division undergraduate course, intended primarily for philosophy majors, will cover the literature on a fascinating question that has recently surfaced at the intersection of epistemology and philosophy of language: whether knowledge is the norm of assertion. The idea behind such a view is that in our standard conversational contexts, one who flat-out asserts that something is the case somehow represents herself as knowing that thing, and thus, there is a norm to the effect that one ought not to flat-out assert something unless one knows it. Proponents of the knowledge-norm have appealed to several strands of data from ordinary conversation practice and problematic sentences to sup- port their view; but other philosophers have leveled counterarguments. This course will evaluate the debate, including the most recent installments from the cutting edge of the philosophical literature. The course will meet a demand amongst undergraduates to study this re- cently (and hotly) debated issue: the literature relating knowledge and assertion is new enough that it is not typically covered by other undergraduate courses in epistemology or philosophy of language. It will hold special appeal for un- dergraduates with cross-disciplinary interests in language, epistemology, and communal/social normativity, and will provide a rich background for those who want to do further advanced study in philosophy or linguistics. Course Requirements Weekly readings and mandatory class attendance; students missing more than 5 class sessions will have their final grade lowered a half grade for each additional absence. -
1 Epistemic Norms of Political Deliberation Fabienne Peter
Epistemic norms of political deliberation Fabienne Peter, University of Warwick ([email protected]) December 2020 Forthcoming in Michael Hannon and Jeroen de Ridder (eds.) Routledge Handbook of Political Epistemology (https://www.routledge.com/The-Routledge-Handbook-of-Political- Epistemology/Hannon-Ridder/p/book/9780367345907). Please cite the published version. Abstract Legitimate political decision-making is underpinned by well-ordered political deliberation, including by the decision-makers themselves, their advisory bodies, and the public at large. But what constitutes well-ordered political deliberation? The short answer to this question is that it’s political deliberation that is governed by relevant norms. In this chapter, I first discuss different types of norms that might govern well-ordered political deliberation. I then focus on one particular type of norms: epistemic norms. My aim in this chapter is to shed light on how the validity of contributions to political deliberation depends, inter alia, on the epistemic status of the claims made. 1. Introduction Political deliberation is the broad, multi-stranded process in which political proposals get considered and critically scrutinised.1 There are many forums in which political deliberation takes place. Some of them are formal institutions of government such as the cabinet and parliament. Other forums of political deliberation include advisory bodies, government agencies, political parties and interest groups, the press and other broadcasters, and, increasingly, social media platforms. The latter are not directly associated with political 1 I have received helpful comments on an earlier version of this chapter from Jeroen de Ridder, Michael Hannon, and an external referee. I also benefitted from conversations with Nathalie Ashton, Rowan Cruft, and Jonathan Heawood in the context of our ARHC project on Norms for the New Public Sphere and from discussions at a NYU Political Economy and Political Theory workshop, especially with Dimitri Landa, Ryan Pevnick, and Melissa Schwartzberg. -
Phil of Law 2014 Syllabus
Princeton University Politics 563/Philosophy 526 Spring 2014 Philosophy of Law Robert P. George and Michael Smith This seminar will consider a range of issues in philosophy of law with particular emphasis on various dimensions of the relationship between law and morality. Requirements: Students are required to read each week's assignments carefully and participate regularly in seminar discussions. Each student must make a presentation to the seminar. Two written work options are available: (1) a long (7000 word) paper on any topic addressed in the seminar or (2) two shorter (3500), critical essays on issues we have explored. These may, but need not, be related to the topic of one’s presentation. Those readings marked with an asterisk (*) are on e-reserve. The following books (all available in paperback editions) are worth purchasing: Ronald Dworkin, Law’s Empire John Finnis, Natural Law and Natural Rights, 2nd edition Lon L. Fuller, The Morality of Law H.L.A. Hart, The Concept of Law, 2nd edition Joseph Raz, Practical Reason and Norms Week 1: Organizational Meeting *O. W. Holmes, “The Path of the Law,” in The Essential Holmes, ed. Richard Posner, pp. 160-77 *John Austin, “The Province of Jurisprudence Determined, “ in The Philosophy of Law, eds. F. Schauer, W. Sinnot-Armstrong, pp. 32-39 *Carl Llewellyn, “The Bramble Bush, a Realistic Jurisprudence, and the common Law Tradition,” in The Philosophy of Law, eds. F. Schauer, W. Sinnot-Armstrong, pp. 53-62 Week 2: Hart's Concept of Law H.L.A. Hart, The Concept of Law, chs. I-VI *Jonathan Cohen, "Critical Notice of Hart's The Concept of Law," in Mind, Vol. -
Lexisnexis™ Academic
LexisNexis™ Academic Copyright (c) 1996 The University of Notre Dame The American Journal of Jurisprudence 1996 41 Am. J. Juris. 133 LENGTH: 13043 words ARTICLE: KELSEN'S UNSTABLE ALTERNATIVE TO NATURAL LAW: RECENT CRITIQUES NAME: Jeffrey Brand-Ballard * BIO: * The author wishes to thank Wilfred E. Rumble and James Q. Whitman for valuable comments on earlier versions of this article. They retain responsibility for none of the remaining defeats. TEXT: [*133] I. INTRODUCTION Legal theorists in this century have often perceived a need for a theory capable of occupying a stable middle ground between natural law theory and nineteenth-century legal positivism. The prolific German-American legal philosopher, Hans Kelsen, was perhaps not the first to feel the need for such a theory, but he was certainly among the first to attempt to construct one. n1 Although Kelsen's own efforts failed, in many ways they defined the ambitions of twentieth-century legal theory and inspired others to take up the challenge. In order to understand the nature of the challenge, which confronts us still today, it is helpful to examine central difficulties with Kelsen's own Pure Theory of Law. Despite Kelsen's indubitable influence on legal theorists in the Anglo-American world and elsewhere, n2 the seminal nature of his work remains underappreciated in the United States. The international community, by contrast, has treated the Pure Theory to extensive criticism at every stage of its long development. Kelsen's earlier work, especially, has received some studious and illuminating criticism in recent years from critics on both sides of the Atlantic. -
Hegel's Philosophy of Right As a Theory of Justice
Copyrighted Material I egel’s Philosophy of Right as a H heory of ustice T J Although many contemporary philosophers have embraced Hegelian philosophy to a surprising degree—which may even help to bridge the gulf between the Analytic and Continental traditions—Hegel’s Elements of the Philosophy of Right has so far failed to exert the slightest influence on the current debates in political philosophy. Rather, in recent years—after the abrupt end of the Marxist phase and its reduction of modern right to a mere superstructure—philosophers returned on a broad front to the rationalist paradigm of the Kantian tradition, which es- sentially dominates the debate from Rawls to Habermas; and however hard these two authors in particular try to embed their Kantian concepts of justice in a realistic, almost social-scientific approach, the theoretical model of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right plays no decisive part in their thought. Nor has the situation changed much in response to the countermovement in political philosophy that came into being through the somewhat arti- ficial grouping of theoreticians as diverse as Charles Taylor, Michael Walzer, or Alasdair MacIntyre under the heading of “communitarianism.” Despite a strong tendency to award a privileged position to ethics as opposed to a formalistic prin- ciple of morality, or to communal values as opposed to arbi- trary individual freedom, no real attempt has been made in these circles to render Hegel’s Philosophy of Right fruitful for the discourse of political philosophy. Indeed, the fact that authors Copyrighted Material chapter 1 such as Michael Walzer, Alasdair MacIntyre, or Joseph Raz are trying to keep the greatest possible distance from the political philosophy of Hegel has acquired an almost symptomatic sig- nificance by now. -
David Hume on Norms and Institutions"
Max Weber Programme Conference "David Hume on Norms and Institutions" San Domenico di Fiesole, Villa la Fonte, 17 April 2008 Justice as Unintended Consequence Please do not cite without prior permission Russel Hardin Department of Politics, New York University © 2006, Russell Hardin 2008.04.14 Justice As Unintended Consequence Russell Hardin* NYU - Politics One of the most neglected of all major legal philosophers is David Hume. His neglect as a specifically legal philosopher has followed from at least two unrelated causes. First, Hume’s work on ethics and on political philosophy was widely opposed and even dismissed in his own time. Second, a generation or so after his death, the positive law tradition of Jeremy Bentham and John Austin took center-stage in legal philosophy and dominated the Anglo-Saxon tradition for more than a century thereafter. This latter phenomenon might not have occluded attention to Hume except that Bentham ([1789] 1970) and Austin ([1832] 1954) took over a continental and quasi Hobbesian principle that was not necessary for their approach but which came to define it in the view of many. That principle is that there must be a primary law giver who is above the law. One could read this principle as analogous to the Aristotelian assumption that there must be a first mover, in this case, a first mover to get law started. Or one could read it as a Hobbesian assumption that we require an all powerful sovereign who is above the law but who gives and enforces the law for all other citizens. Hobbes sees his requirement as both logically and causally necessary. -
Life with Augustine
Life with Augustine ...a course in his spirit and guidance for daily living By Edmond A. Maher ii Life with Augustine © 2002 Augustinian Press Australia Sydney, Australia. Acknowledgements: The author wishes to acknowledge and thank the following people: ► the Augustinian Province of Our Mother of Good Counsel, Australia, for support- ing this project, with special mention of Pat Fahey osa, Kevin Burman osa, Pat Codd osa and Peter Jones osa ► Laurence Mooney osa for assistance in editing ► Michael Morahan osa for formatting this 2nd Edition ► John Coles, Peter Gagan, Dr. Frank McGrath fms (Brisbane CEO), Benet Fonck ofm, Peter Keogh sfo for sharing their vast experience in adult education ► John Rotelle osa, for granting us permission to use his English translation of Tarcisius van Bavel’s work Augustine (full bibliography within) and for his scholarly advice Megan Atkins for her formatting suggestions in the 1st Edition, that have carried over into this the 2nd ► those generous people who have completed the 1st Edition and suggested valuable improvements, especially Kath Neehouse and friends at Villanova College, Brisbane Foreword 1 Dear Participant Saint Augustine of Hippo is a figure in our history who has appealed to the curiosity and imagination of many generations. He is well known for being both sinner and saint, for being a bishop yet also a fellow pilgrim on the journey to God. One of the most popular and attractive persons across many centuries, his influence on the church has continued to our current day. He is also renowned for his influ- ence in philosophy and psychology and even (in an indirect way) art, music and architecture. -
Norm (Philosophy) from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia
Norm (philosophy) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Norms are concepts (sentences) of practical import, oriented to effecting an action, rather than conceptual abstractions that describe, explain, and express. Normative sentences imply "ought-to" types of statements and assertions, in distinction to sentences that provide "is" types of statements and assertions. Common normative sentences include commands, permissions, and prohibitions; common normative abstract concepts include sincerity, justification, and honesty. A popular account of norms describes them as reasons to take action, to believe, and to feel. Types of norms Orders and permissions express norms. Such norm sentences do not describe how the world is, they rather prescribe how the world should be. Imperative sentences are the most obvious way to express norms, but declarative sentences also may be norms, as is the case with laws or 'principles'. Generally, whether an expression is a norm depends on what the sentence intends to assert. For instance, a sentence of the form "All Ravens are Black" could on one account be taken as descriptive, in which case an instance of a white raven would contradict it, or alternatively "All Ravens are Black" could be interpreted as a norm, in which case it stands as a principle and definition, so 'a white raven' would then not be a raven. Those norms purporting to create obligations (or duties) and permissions are called deontic norms (see also deontic logic). The concept of deontic norm is already an extension of a previous concept of norm, which would only include imperatives, that is, norms purporting to create duties. The understanding that permissions are norms in the same way was an important step in ethics and philosophy of law. -
The Concept of Law Revisited
Michigan Law Review Volume 94 Issue 6 1996 The Concept of Law Revisited Leslie Green Osgoode Hall Law School, York University Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr Part of the Public Law and Legal Theory Commons Recommended Citation Leslie Green, The Concept of Law Revisited, 94 MICH. L. REV. 1687 (1996). Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol94/iss6/15 This Review is brought to you for free and open access by the Michigan Law Review at University of Michigan Law School Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Michigan Law Review by an authorized editor of University of Michigan Law School Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. IBE CONCEPT OF LAW REVISITED Leslie Green* THE CONCEPT OF LAW. Second Edition. By H.L.A. Hart. With a Postscript edited by Penelope A. Bulloch and Joseph Raz. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1994. Pp. xii, 315. $26. Law is a social construction. It is a historically contingent fea ture of certain societies, one whose emergence is signaled by the rise of a systematic form of social control and elite domination. In one way it supersedes custom, in another it rests on it, for law is a system of primary social rules that direct and appraise behavior, together with secondary social rules that identify, change, and en force the primary rules. Law may be beneficial, but only in some contexts and always at a price, at the risk of grave injustice; our appropriate attitude to it is therefore one of caution rather than celebration. -
APA Newsletters
APA Newsletters Volume 06, Number 2 Spring 2007 NEWSLETTER ON PHILOSOPHY AND LAW FROM THE EDITOR, STEVEN SCALET ARTICLES BRIAN H. BIX “Joseph Raz and Conceptual Analysis” JULES L. COLEMAN “Law and Political Morality” TIMOTHY ENDICOTT “Interpretation, Jurisdiction, and the Authority of Law” KENNETH EINAR HIMMA “Revisiting Raz: Inclusive Positivism and the Concept of Authority” LIAM MURPHY “Razian Concepts” STEPHEN PERRY “Two Problems of Political Authority” © 2007 by The American Philosophical Association ISSN: 1067-9464 APA NEWSLETTER ON Philosophy and Law Steven Scalet, Editor Spring 2007 Volume 06, Number 2 relating to such theories. In particular, I will look at the role of conceptual analysis in legal theory, focusing on some recent FROM THE EDITOR work by Joseph Raz.1 I. Overview Edition in Tribute to Joseph Raz It was a commonplace in the history of jurisprudence to focus on the inquiry, what is law? It is worth taking a few moments Joseph Raz is professor at Columbia University Law School to consider the question more closely. and research faculty at Oxford University. His writings influence generations of scholars and his many students are now among First and foremost, there is a potential confusion (heightened 2 the leading scholars in philosophy of law. in English more than in other major languages ), as “law,” even if focused on matters jurisprudential (and not speaking of physical For this edition of the Newsletter we invited leading political laws, the laws of games, social conventions, etc.), can refer to and legal philosophers to analyze some aspect of Professor a number of different, if related, matters: most prominently, Raz’s ideas. -
Hans Kelsen's Contributions to the Changing Notion of International Criminal Responsibility
City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects 5-2019 Between Politics and Morality: Hans Kelsen's Contributions to the Changing Notion of International Criminal Responsibility Jason Kropsky The Graduate Center, City University of New York How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/3249 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] BETWEEN POLITICS AND MORALITY: HANS KELSEN’S CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE CHANGING NOTION OF INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL RESPONSIBILITY by JASON REUVEN KROPSKY A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Political Science in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, The City University of New York 2019 © 2019 JASON REUVEN KROPSKY All Rights Reserved ii Between Politics and Morality: Hans Kelsen’s Contributions to the Changing Notion of International Criminal Responsibility by Jason Reuven Kropsky This manuscript has been read and accepted for the Graduate Faculty in Political Science in satisfaction of the dissertation requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Date John Wallach Chair of Examining Committee Date Alyson Cole Executive Officer Supervisory Committee: John Wallach Bruce Cronin Peter Romaniuk THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK iii ABSTRACT Between Politics and Morality: Hans Kelsen’s Contributions to the Changing Notion of International Criminal Responsibility by Jason Reuven Kropsky Advisor: John Wallach The pure theory of law analyzes the legal normative basis of jurisprudence.