[lit-ideas] Re: Ronald Dworkin 1931-2013
- From: Donal McEvoy <donalmcevoyuk@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 23 Feb 2013 12:34:19 +0000 (GMT)
"There are many problems with both Hart's and Dworkin's distinct accounts of
'the law' but the most fundamental defects in their accounts arise from defects
in the "theory of knowledge" they adopt - often without having much clarity
that a "theory of knowledge", even of a rudimentary or unarticulated kind, must
lie at the back of any proper understanding of 'law': for to understand 'the
law' is to have some kind of 'knowledge' (however 'conjectural'), and 'the law'
cannot be understood philosophically apart from the cognitive enterprise
involved."
"'What does the law start from and what is its central character?' are
questions fundamental to many legal philosophers. We might ask: where does
knowledge of any sort start? It starts with problems and attempts to solve
them. And those problems arise from prior problems and prior attempts to solve
those prior problems. As a matter of both its history and its proper
philosophical understanding, we must understand that current legal problems may
be traced back to prior legal problems and these prior legal problems may be
traced all the way back to problems that pre-existed the invention of 'the law'
as an construct for their solution. (In the light of this it becomes clear that
Hart's central idea, the 'rule of recognition', is a myth - and not merely a
historical myth but also a philosophical and epistemic-cognitive myth.)"
Karl Popper in "Essays in Jurisprudence", a sadly as yet non-existent
publication that would be worth reading by any student of law. (However, legal
academics at Oxford are not impressed by this sort of thing, as it implies the
sort of thing they teach as 'jurisprudence' is not that impressive but largely
a mish-mash of half-baked philosophy-lite [which of course of what proper
philosophers largely think of it].)
Donal
Saying the unsayable
London
And not forgetting:
one of Dworkin's teachers: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lon_L._Fuller
The entry on Dworkin in Root's Encyclopedia of Knowledge: "Professor of
Jurisprudence at the University of Oxford. Says we have a right to pornography.
Whatever next?"
________________________________
From: Robert Paul <rpaul@xxxxxxxx>
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Friday, 22 February 2013, 22:16
Subject: [lit-ideas] Ronald Dworkin 1931-2013
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/15/us/ronald-dworkin-legal-philosopher-dies-at-81.html?pagewanted=all&_r=1&;
http://www.nybooks.com/contributors/ronald-dworkin-2/
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Robert Paul
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