1997 OLIVER-WENDELL-HOLMES-LECTURES - THE PROBLEMATICS OF MORAL AND LEGAL THEORY

Authors
Citation
Ra. Posner, 1997 OLIVER-WENDELL-HOLMES-LECTURES - THE PROBLEMATICS OF MORAL AND LEGAL THEORY, Harvard law review, 111(7), 1998, pp. 1637-1717
Citations number
139
Categorie Soggetti
Law
Journal title
ISSN journal
0017811X
Volume
111
Issue
7
Year of publication
1998
Pages
1637 - 1717
Database
ISI
SICI code
0017-811X(1998)111:7<1637:1O-TPO>2.0.ZU;2-F
Abstract
In these Holmes Lectures, delivered a century after the publication of Oliver Wendell Holmes's great essay The Path of the Law, Judge Posner argues for an essentially Holmesian conception of the proper relation s among modern normative moral philosophy (''academic moralism''), mor ality, and law Academic moralism, he argues, lacks either the intellec tual cogency or the emotional power to change people's beliefs or beha vior; the power to do so resides in ''moral entrepreneurs,'' which aca demic moralists emphatically are not. Academic moralism's lack of coge ncy disqualifies it to guide judicial decisionmaking even -in fact, es pecially -in cases involving controversial moral issues, such as abort ion and euthanasia as the Supreme Court has recognized.