
Contents
13 Almost Pragmatism: The Jurisprudence Of Richard Posner, Richard Rorty, and Ronald Dworkin
Get access-
Published:November 1993
Cite
Abstract
In The Problems of Jurisprudence,1 Richard Posner announces that he is a pragmatist, by which he means that he rejects many if not most of the goals of legal theory, and especially the chief goal of offering an account of the law that is at once comprehensively abstract, strongly normative, and predictive of outcomes, that is, of decisions and holdings. He begins by declaring that he will “argue against ‘artificial reason,’ against Dworkin’s “right answer’ thesis, against formalism, against overarching conceptions of justice such as ‘corrective justice,’ ‘natural law,’ and ‘wealth maximization’ ... against ‘strong legal positivism’ “ (26), and he ends by pro claiming that the search for “ an overarching principle for resolving legal disputes” (302) has failed and that “no keys were found” (455). The process of finding no keys gives the book its structure. In other treatises on jurisprudence the argument is built up step by step into what promises to be a magnificent edifice (or empire), but here “there is no edifice” (69), only the repeated attempt to lay still another foundation that is almost immediately found to be as “rotten” as the last one (392).
Sign in
Personal account
- Sign in with email/username & password
- Get email alerts
- Save searches
- Purchase content
- Activate your purchase/trial code
- Add your ORCID iD
Purchase
Our books are available by subscription or purchase to libraries and institutions.
Purchasing informationMonth: | Total Views: |
---|---|
August 2024 | 2 |
September 2024 | 2 |
Get help with access
Institutional access
Access to content on Oxford Academic is often provided through institutional subscriptions and purchases. If you are a member of an institution with an active account, you may be able to access content in one of the following ways:
IP based access
Typically, access is provided across an institutional network to a range of IP addresses. This authentication occurs automatically, and it is not possible to sign out of an IP authenticated account.
Sign in through your institution
Choose this option to get remote access when outside your institution. Shibboleth/Open Athens technology is used to provide single sign-on between your institution’s website and Oxford Academic.
If your institution is not listed or you cannot sign in to your institution’s website, please contact your librarian or administrator.
Sign in with a library card
Enter your library card number to sign in. If you cannot sign in, please contact your librarian.
Society Members
Society member access to a journal is achieved in one of the following ways:
Sign in through society site
Many societies offer single sign-on between the society website and Oxford Academic. If you see ‘Sign in through society site’ in the sign in pane within a journal:
If you do not have a society account or have forgotten your username or password, please contact your society.
Sign in using a personal account
Some societies use Oxford Academic personal accounts to provide access to their members. See below.
Personal account
A personal account can be used to get email alerts, save searches, purchase content, and activate subscriptions.
Some societies use Oxford Academic personal accounts to provide access to their members.
Viewing your signed in accounts
Click the account icon in the top right to:
Signed in but can't access content
Oxford Academic is home to a wide variety of products. The institutional subscription may not cover the content that you are trying to access. If you believe you should have access to that content, please contact your librarian.
Institutional account management
For librarians and administrators, your personal account also provides access to institutional account management. Here you will find options to view and activate subscriptions, manage institutional settings and access options, access usage statistics, and more.