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Pragmatism and the Illegal
Pragmatism can be described as a descriptive and normative theory. As a descriptive theory, it affirms that the conventional model of jurisprudence doesn't reflect reality, and that legal pragmatism provides a better alternative.
Legal pragmatism, in particular, rejects the notion that correct decisions can be determined by a core principle. It argues for a pragmatic approach that is based on context.
What is Pragmatism?
The philosophy of pragmatism emerged in the latter part of the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was the first truly North American philosophical movement (though it is important to note that there were followers of the contemporaneously developing existentialism who were also referred to as "pragmatists"). The pragmaticists, like many other major philosophical movements throughout time, were partly inspired by dissatisfaction over the situation in the world and the past.
It is difficult to provide the precise definition of pragmatism. Pragmatism is often associated with its focus on outcomes and results. This is often in contrast to other philosophical traditions that take a more theoretic approach to truth and knowledge.
Charles Sanders Peirce is credited as the spokesman for pragmatic thinking in the context of philosophy. He believed that only what can be independently verified and proved by practical tests is true or real. Peirce also emphasized that the only real way to understand the truth of something was to study the effects it had on other people.
Another of the pragmatists who founded the movement was John Dewey (1859-1952), who was an educator as well as a philosopher. He developed a more holistic approach to pragmatism, which included connections with art, education, society and politics. He was influenced by Peirce and also took inspiration from the German idealist philosophers Wilhelm von Humboldt and Friedrich Hegel.
The pragmatists had a more loose definition of what was truth. It was not intended to be a realism position but rather an attempt to achieve a greater degree of clarity and well-justified accepted beliefs. This was achieved by combining experience with solid reasoning.
Putnam extended this neopragmatic method to be more widely described as internal Realism. This was a variant of the correspondence theory of truth that did not attempt to attain an external God's-eye viewpoint, but maintained truth's objectivity within a theory or description. It was an improved version of the theories of Peirce and James.
What is Pragmatism's Theory of Decision-Making?
A legal pragmatist regards the law as a means to resolve problems, not as a set rules. They reject a classical view of deductive certainty, and instead emphasizes the importance of context when making decisions. Legal pragmatists also argue that the idea of fundamental principles is a misguided idea as in general such principles will be outgrown in actual practice. A pragmatic view is superior to a classical conception of legal decision-making.
The pragmatist viewpoint is broad and has inspired many different theories that span ethics, science, philosophy sociology, political theory, and even politics. Although Charles Sanders Peirce deserves most of the credit for pragmatism and his pragmatism-based maxim - a guideline for defining the meaning of hypotheses through tracing their practical consequences - is the foundation of the doctrine however, the application of the doctrine has since expanded significantly to cover a broad range of views. The doctrine has expanded to encompass a broad range of opinions which include the belief that a philosophy theory only valid if it's useful and that knowledge is more than just an abstract representation of the world.
The pragmatists have their fair share of critics, despite their contributions to many areas of philosophy. The pragmatists' refusal to accept a priori propositional knowlege has resulted in a powerful and influential critique of analytical philosophy. This critique has spread far beyond philosophy to a variety social disciplines including the fields of jurisprudence, political science, and a host of other social sciences.
Despite this, it remains difficult to classify a pragmatist view of the law as a descriptive theory. Most judges act as if they follow a logical empiricist framework that is based on precedent as well as traditional legal materials for their decisions. However, a legal pragmatist may well argue that this model doesn't accurately reflect the actual dynamics of judicial decision-making. It seems more appropriate to think of a pragmatist approach to law as an normative model that serves as guidelines on how law should evolve and be taken into account.
What is Pragmatism's Theory of Conflict Resolution?
Pragmatism is a philosophical tradition that sees the world's knowledge as inseparable from agency within it. It has drawn a wide and sometimes contradictory variety of interpretations. It is sometimes seen as a response to analytic philosophy, whereas at other times it is considered an alternative to continental thinking. It is a thriving and growing tradition.
The pragmatists wanted to emphasise the value of experience and the importance of the individual's consciousness in the formation of belief. They also sought to rectify what they perceived as the flaws of a flawed philosophical heritage which had affected the work of earlier philosophers. These mistakes included Cartesianism Nominalism and a misunderstanding of the importance of human reason.
All pragmatists are suspicious of unquestioned and non-experimental pictures of reason. They are suspicious of any argument that claims that "it works" or "we have always done things this way" are true. For the legal pragmatist these statements could be interpreted as being too legalistic, naively rationalist, and insensitive to the past practice.
Contrary to the traditional conception of law as an unwritten set of rules, the pragmatist stresses the importance of context when making legal decisions. It will also acknowledge that there are a variety of ways of describing law and that this diversity must be embraced. The perspective of perspectivalism, may make the legal pragmatic appear less reliant to precedents and accepted analogies.
A key feature of the legal pragmatist view is the recognition that judges have no access to a set or principles from which they can make logically argued decisions in every case. The pragmatist is keen to emphasize the importance of understanding the situation before making a decision, and to be prepared to alter or abandon a legal rule when it is found to be ineffective.
There is no accepted definition of what a legal pragmatist should be There are some characteristics that define this stance on philosophy. These include an emphasis on context, and a rejection of any attempt to derive law from abstract principles that are not directly tested in a specific case. The pragmaticist is also aware that the law is constantly evolving and there can't be only one correct view.
What is the Pragmatism Theory of Justice?
As a judicial theory, legal pragmatism has been lauded as a method to effect social changes. But it is also criticized as a way of sidestepping legitimate philosophical and moral disagreements, by relegating them to the arena of legal decision-making. The pragmatic does not want to confine philosophical debate to the realm of the law. Instead, they take a pragmatic approach to these disputes that insists on the importance of an open-ended approach to knowledge and a willingness to acknowledge that the existence of perspectives is inevitable.
The majority of legal pragmatists don't believe in a foundationalist picture of legal decision-making and rely on traditional legal materials to serve as the basis for judging current cases. They believe that the case law aren't enough to provide a solid basis for properly analyzing legal conclusions. Therefore, pragmatic kr need to add other sources, such as analogies or principles that are derived from precedent.
The legal pragmatist rejects the notion of a set of fundamental principles that could be used to determine correct decisions. She claims that this would make it easier for judges, who could then base their decisions on rules that have been established, to make decisions.
Many legal pragmatists because of the skepticism characteristic of neopragmatism and the anti-realism it embodies and has taken an even more deflationist approach to the concept of truth. They have tended to argue that by focussing on the way in which concepts are applied, describing its purpose and establishing criteria that can be used to establish that a certain concept has this function and that this is the standard that philosophers can reasonably be expecting from a truth theory.
Certain pragmatists have taken on a broader view of truth, which they call an objective norm for inquiries and assertions. This approach combines elements of pragmatism and classical realist and Idealist philosophies. It is also in line with the wider pragmatic tradition, which regards truth as an objective standard for inquiry and assertion, not just a measure of justification or warranted affirmability (or its derivatives). This more holistic view of truth is called an "instrumental" theory of truth, because it seeks to define truth by reference to the goals and values that guide a person's engagement with the world.