The Legal and Political Philosophy of Leonard Nelson

1941 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 437-453
Author(s):  
Levi D. Gresh

The legal philosophy of Nelson is fundamentally a liberal doctrine. It is, on the one hand, opposed to the philosophy which places a supreme trust in human reason and which believes that man can sit down and codify a system of laws in which there will be no gaps; and, on the other, it is opposed to a belief in the necessary rationality of existing institutions in the onward sweep of human history, the idea which was so dear to the Historical School of jurisprudence.Nelson is a Naturrechtlehrer in the sense that he believes in the existence of metajuristic criteria of justice. That there are elemental principles of justice which are universal, and according to which laws are either just or unjust, decisions either right or wrong, Nelson believes cannot be denied. The moment we admit the injustice of a statute, or a judicial decision, we admit that we have used a criterion on which to base our opinion. The mistake we make, however, is to suppose that we can discover criteria, either empirically or logically.

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hanna Gekle

The history of mental development on the one and the history of his writings on the other hand form the two separate but essentially intertwined strands of an archeology of Ernst Bloch´s thought undertaken in this book. Bloch as a philosopher is peculiar in that his initial access to thought rose from the depths of early, painful experience. To give expression to this experience, he not only needed to develop new categories, but first and foremost had to find words for it: the experience of the uncanny and the abysmal, of which he tells in Spuren, is on the level of philosophical theory juxtaposed by the “Dunkel des gerade gelebten Augenblicks” (darkness of the moment just lived) and his discovery of a “Noch-nicht-Bewusstes” (not-yet-conscious), thus metaphysically undermining the classical Oedipus complex in the succession of Freud. In this book, psyche, work and the history of the 20th century appear concentrated in Ernst Bloch the philosopher and contemporary witness, who paid tribute to these supra-individual powers in his work as much as he hoped to transgress them.


2020 ◽  
Vol 26 ◽  
pp. 101-110
Author(s):  
Mateusz Falkowski

The article is devoted to the famous The Discourse of Voluntary Servitude by Étienne de La Boétie. The author considers the theoretical premises underlying the concept of “voluntary servitude”, juxtaposing them with two modern concepts of will developed by Descartes and Pascal. An important feature of La Boétie’s project is the political and therefore intersubjective – as opposed to the individualistic perspective of Descartes and Pascal – starting point. It is therefore situated against the background of, on the one hand, the historical evolution of early modern states (from feudal monarchies, through so-called Renaissance monarchies up to European absolutisms) and, on the other hand – of the political philosophy of Machiavelli and Hobbes.


1956 ◽  
Vol 46 (4) ◽  
pp. 761-772 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. J. Haddow

The biting-habits of mosquitos in the genus Eretmapodites Theobald, as shown by 24-hour catches, display a certain uniformity in that all the species studied are essentially diurnal and bite very close to the ground, in shade. They do not enter dwellings.When, however, two localities are compared (the Entebbe area and Bwamba County) it is found that there is a fundamental difference in behaviour. At Entebbe there is an exceedingly well-marked wave of activity before sunset. This does not occur in Bwamba, where the cycle shows no pronounced characteristics apart from its generally diurnal nature. It is shown that this difference arises from the fact that in Bwamba the first hour of biting-activity tends to be the most intense (no matter when it occurs) whereas in Entebbe the hour before sunset is almost always preferred.One group (the E. chrysogaster group) is present in both localities. In Entebbe it shows an activity curve of the one type, and in Bwamba a curve of the other type.It is concluded that some environmental influence must be involved. At the moment, however, no suggestion can be made concerning the nature of this influence, beyond the fact that the activity-patterns concerned are not easily explained in terms of microclimate.


Author(s):  
Michael A. Aung-Thwin
Keyword(s):  
The One ◽  

The kingdom that was Ava came to an “end” in 1526-7. It can be attributed to both long-term structural causes as well as “incidents of the moment,” events that set “afire” the former “kindling.” These “incidents of the moment” can accelerate but also slow down (sometimes, actually reverse) long-term patterns and trends. In Ava’s case, they accelerated its decline. The merit-path to salvation, court factionalism, the patron-client system, and the growth of Shan ascendancy on the one hand, and military set-backs, serendipitous events, and intransigent personalities on the other, resulted in the “fall” of the First Ava Dynasty in 1527. Thereafter, Ava became an ordinary myosa-ship and ceased being the exemplary center of Upper Myanmar, until raised once again as capital of the Second Ava Dynasty in 1600, which is beyond the scope of this study.


Author(s):  
Engin Sorhun

The last global economic crisis has prompted new dynamics in the scope of economic integration: On the one hand, the Transatlantic economy witnessed the formation of the largest economic integration in the human history: the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). On the other hand, Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) recently adopted the economic vision for initiating an economic integration. Since both integration projects were recently launched, this chapter is intended to make a small contribution to the limited scientific resources available to policymakers, academicians, NGOs, etc. In this respect, this chapter first presents a set of political, economic, institutional, and natural conditions suggested in the principal economic integration literature for the success of a regional economic bloc. Second, it aims at evaluating the TTIP and the SCO in the light of these success conditions.


1873 ◽  
Vol 19 (87) ◽  
pp. 485-487

The proper treatment of mental disease must always be considered as involving two distinct divisions. In the one, “moral” management, it is necessary to gain regard and willing obedience, to check wayward impulse, to beat away disturbing fears, to cheer the despairing, to restrain, not by force, bat by patience and firmness, the angry and the violent, and to catch the moment in which the swiftly wavering mind may be brought to rest, and its balance permanently retained. The other division embraces the correct employment of hygienic and purely medical remedial agents.


1988 ◽  
Vol 152 (S1) ◽  
pp. 21-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. E. Cooper

The discussion here is largely concerned with the purposes and structure of classifications of clinical concepts, variously called diseases, illnesses, disorders and syndromes, which are the main reasons why patients go to see doctors. Multiaspect (or multiaxial) classification has deservedly come to the fore in recent years, and seems likely to increase in importance for purposes of education, communication and research in the near future, but it is mentioned only briefly in the following discussion. The main focus of attention for the moment is the clinical descriptions of disorders; this is, of course, usually the first aspect in a multiaspect system, and the one around which the other aspects tend to be organised.


Author(s):  
Nathan Widder

This chapter examines Friedrich Nietzsche's political philosophy, first by focusing on his claim that the ‘death of God’ inaugurates modern nihilism. It then explains Nietzsche's significance for political theory by situating him, on the one hand, against the Platonist and Christian traditions that dominate political philosophy and, on the other hand, with contemporary attempts to develop a new political theory of difference. The chapter also considers Nietzsche's genealogical method and proceeds by analysing the three essays of On the Genealogy of Morals, along with his views on good and bad, good and evil, slave morality, the ascetic ideal, and the nihilism of modern secularism. Finally, it reviews contemporary interpretations of Nietzsche's relation and relevance to political theory and how his philosophy has inspired a broader set of trends that has come to be known as ‘the ontological turn in political theory’.


2020 ◽  
Vol 66 (3) ◽  
pp. 406-432 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alain Gignac

This article compares a discursive analysis of 2 Thess 2 and Giorgio Agamben's use of the same passage in his political philosophy (in at least three of his books). On the one hand, 2 Thess 2 is a complex and detailed eschatological scenario, but ultimately elliptical – with a self-referential enunciative device centred on a ‘super blank’, the κατέχον/κατέχων, which it is preferable not to identify. On the other hand, despite some shortcuts, Agamben aligns with the main intuitions of 2 Thess 2, which finally returns the reader to his/her own present where a conflict is played out between, on one front, the Messiah and his community, and, on the other front, the anti-messiah and his anti-messianic community. According to Agamben, the κατέχον/κατέχων is a negative figure, the legal facade that prevents unmasking the anomie of current political systems and delays the establishment of a messianic community beyond the law.


1956 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 475-487 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harry Eckstein

The issues which arose during the discussions of the conference fall fairly conveniently into three compartments.First, we obviously had to settle, with reasonable clarity, what we were talking about: what “political philosophy” is, what “political science” is, and whether they are really distinguishable. The basic issue of the conference was to determine the relevance of the one to the study of the other, and if we had decided that they were really the same thing, there would simply have been no problems for us to discuss. On the whole, we felt that a valid, if not necessarily sharp, distinction was to be made between the “philosophical” and the “scientific” approaches to the study of politics and that we were not discussing absurd or tautological issues. We agreed, however, that all types of political inquiry involve the construction of theory, implicit or explicit, and that the title “political theory” has been unjustifiably appropriated by the historians of political thought.


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