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

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.