Holmes and the romantic mind

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. is perhaps best known for his "tough-minded" jur isprudence based on objective standards of reasonableness. Scholars have tr aditionally understood Holmes's jurisprudential outlook as fundamentally be havioristic. Professor Dailey challenges that understanding revealing the i mportance of Romantic psychology in Holmes's major writings. His outlook, s he argues, was shaped by his belief in unconscious motivations, imagination , irrationality and instinctual drives. Rather than simply characterize Hol mes as a "Romantic," Professor Dailey draws out the conflict in;his thought , illuminating his struggle to develop an empirical approach to law that co uld also account for the depth and complexity of human nature.