•  201
    Fallibilism, as a fundamental aspect of pragmatic epistemology, can be illuminated by a study of law. Before he became a famous American judge, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., along with his friends William James and Charles Sanders Peirce, associated as presumptive members of the Metaphysical Club of Cambridge in the 1870s, recalled as the birthplace of pragmatism. As a young scholar, Holmes advanced a concept of legal fallibilism as incremental community inquiry. In this early work, I suggest that…Read more
  •  199
    Using two examples of ethical choice, Philippa Foot’s snake and the traffic roundabout, this paper offers an account of normative induction that characterizes particularism and generalism as stages of normative inquiry, rather than rival accounts of moral knowledge and motivation. Ethical particularism holds that the evaluative cannot be “cashed out” in propositional form, and that it is descriptively “shapeless.” Drawing on examples from law, this paper claims that, while individual normative i…Read more
  •  44
    Between Facts and Norms (review)
    Newsletter of the Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy 26 (81): 14-17. 1998.
  •  24
    Holistic Pragmatism and Law: Morton White on Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes
    Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society 40 (4). 2004.
  •  21
    Foundationalism and constitutional rights: The contribution of pragmatism
    Journal of Social Philosophy 18 (3): 43-52. 1987.
    The controversy over judicial activism is as old as the question whether law is “made” or “found” by the courts, and is die quintessential living question for legal philosophers. Here the practical meets the abstract, as Supreme Court justices must, explicitly or not, adopt some philosophical viewpoint in deciding how general constitutional propositions do, or do not, decide current concress te controversies.
  •  20
    Flynn, Political Philosophy at the Closure of Metaphysics (review)
    Newsletter of the Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy 24 (75): 7-8. 1996.
  •  18
    Operative Rights (review)
    Newsletter of the Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy 22 (69): 25-27. 1994.
  •  17
    Hobbes, Holmes, and Dewey: Pragmatism and the Problem of Order
    Contemporary Pragmatism 7 (2): 1-14. 2010.
    Civil wars in England and America were catalysts in forming the jurisprudential views of Thomas Hobbes and Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. Holmes's pragmatism advances a fundamentally distinct view of order from Hobbes's analytical theory. Holmes replaced the Hobbesian analytical model of law with an endogenous model that assimilates conflict in a process of formal but communal inquiry into discrete types of dispute. Holmes rejected the analytical boundary around law in favor of a holistic fallibilism…Read more
  •  12
    Holmes, Pragmatism, and the Deconstruction of Utilitarianism
    Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society 23 (1). 1987.
  •  11
    Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr, is considered by many to be the most influential American jurist. The voluminous literature devoted to his writings and legal thought, however, is diverse and inconsistent. In this study, Frederic R. Kellogg follows Holmes's intellectual path from his early writings through his judicial career. He offers a fresh perspective that addresses the views of Holmes's leading critics and explains his relevance to the controversy over judicial activism and restraint. Holmes is …Read more
  •  9
    Philip Kitcher, "Moral Progress"
    Philosophy in Review 42 (3): 10-13. 2022.
  •  6
    Praxiology, pragmatism, and law
    In Leo V. Ryan, F. Byron Nahser & Wojciech Gasparski (eds.), Praxiology and Pragmatism, Transaction Publishers. pp. 10--141. 2002.
  •  6
    The Social Dimension of Legal Uncertainty
    European Journal of Pragmatism and American Philosophy 5 (2). 2013.
    Nineteenth-century references to the syllogism by J. S. Mill and Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. reveal a distinct approach to the logic of inference in the formative years of pragmatism. In the latter may be found an element of the emergence of generals from particulars. Fallibilism in law and science reflects their social dimension as part of the communal ordering of experience. This implies a distinct approach to uncertainty, as experience yet to be integrated within a developing system of classifi…Read more
  •  6
    Who Owns Pragmatism?
    Journal of Speculative Philosophy 6 (1): 67-80. 1992.
  •  6
    Democracy and the Post-totalitarian Experience
    with Leszek Koczanowicz, Beth J. Singer, and Łukasz Nysler
    Rodopi. 2005.
    This book presents the work of Polish and American philosophers about Poland's transition from Communist domination to democracy. Among their topics are nationalism, liberalism, law and justice, academic freedom, religion, fascism, and anti-Semitism. Beyond their insights into the ongoing situation in Poland, these essays have broader implications, inspiring reflection on dealing with needed social changes.
  •  5
    American Pragmatism and European Social Theory
    European Journal of Pragmatism and American Philosophy 4 (1): 107-119. 2012.
    Max Scheler followed American pragmatism in viewing knowledge as residing in concrete human acts, and both emphasized the role of social or community inquiry. How, given this insight, is knowledge to be understood? The answer must be sought within specific realms of inquiry, like science, where a sociology of scientific knowledge has emerged in the wake of Kuhn’s Structure of Scientific Revolutions. What about law, if seen as another form of community inquiry? We may find a sociology of legal kn…Read more
  •  3
    Moral Dilemmas, Ethical Particularism, and Dewey’s Continuum of Normative Inquiry
    European Journal of Pragmatism and American Philosophy 13 (2). 2021.
    Departing from hypothetical dilemmas and drawing on examples from law, this paper offers a pragmatist account of normative induction that characterizes moral particularism and generalism as stages of inquiry into ethical problems, rather than rival accounts of moral knowledge and motivation. Pragmatism’s response to analytical moral theory lies in understanding the transformative nature of John Dewey’s social continuum of inquiry. The continuum is unrecognized in the analysis of hypothetical dil…Read more
  •  2
    Pragmatism, Logic, and Law
    Lexington Books. 2021.
    Pragmatism, Logic and Law traces legal pragmatism as a distinct logical theory originated in late 19th century America, covering various issues, cases, personalities, and relevant intellectual movements within and outside law. It addresses pragmatism’s relation to legal liberalism, natural law, critical legal studies (CLS), and neopragmatism.
  •  2
    The Place of Responsibility in the Philosophy of Law
    Dialogue and Universalism 5 (11): 119-123. 1995.
  •  1
    The Relation of Rights to the Real
    The Paideia Archive: Twentieth World Congress of Philosophy 33 38-45. 1998.
    This paper approaches Bentham's ontology of rights from a viewpoint influenced by American philosophical pragmatism. I examine how rights are conceived and discussed in relation to the real. Jeremy Bentham maintained that all rights are "fictitious entities." But, in privileging "political" over moral and natural rights, Bentham implies that legal rights stand in a privileged position over natural rights with regard to the relation of mind to the actual. By reason of its enforceability through s…Read more
  • Il fallibilismo nel diritto: regolativo o costitutivo?
    Discipline Filosofiche 19 (2). 2009.
  • This book develops John Dewey's broad conception of social conflict as a natural process of discovery and preference adjustment, resolving Kenneth Arrow's famous theorem of the impossibility of ordering diverse preferences through voting. It addresses the nature and resolution of today's urgent problems and political polarization.
  • The Abuse of Principle
    Archiv für Rechts- und Sozialphilosophie 97 (2): 218-223. 2011.
    Contemporary analytical jurisprudence holds that the “doubtful” or “hard” case, not resolved by any clear legal authority, is either legally indeterminate or can be resolved only by judicial recourse to principles. There is an aspect of the “doubtful case” that militates against recourse to principle. When viewed as representative of an early stage of a continuing class of disputes, then (especially in controversial cases of broad import) judicial recourse to principles may lead to an improviden…Read more
  • America’s Bachelor Uncle (review)
    Newsletter of the Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy 25 (78): 19-20. 1997.
  • The Formative Essays of Justice Holmes
    Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society 21 (1): 147-151. 1985.