An Introduction to the Philosophy of LawPound, Roscoe
Philosophy
An Introduction to the Philosophy of Law
Pound, Roscoe
Law -- Philosophy
Transition from the idea of law as a device to keep the peace to the
idea of law as a device to maintain the social _status quo_ may be
seen in the proposition of Heraclitus, that men should fight for their
laws as for the walls of their city. In Plato the idea of maintaining
the social order through the law is fully developed. The actual social
order was by no means what it should be. Men were to be reclassified
and everyone assigned to the class for which he was best fitted. But
when the classification and the assignment had been made the law was
to keep him there. It was not a device to set him free that he might
find his own level by free competition with his fellows and free
experiment with his natural powers. It was a device to prevent such
disturbances of the social order by holding each individual to his
appointed place. As Plato puts it, the shoemaker is to be only a
shoemaker and not a pilot also; the farmer is to be only a farmer and
not a judge as well; the soldier is to be only a soldier and not a
man of business besides; and if a universal genius who through wisdom
can be everything and do everything comes to the ideal city-state, he
is to be required to move on. Aristotle puts the same idea in another
way, asserting that justice is a condition in which each keeps within
his appointed sphere; that we first take account of relations of
inequality, treating individuals according to their worth, and then
secondarily of relations of equality in the classes into which their
worth requires them to be assigned. When St. Paul exhorted wives to
obey their husbands, and servants to obey their masters, and thus
everyone to exert himself to do his duty in the class where the social
order had put him, he expressed this Greek conception of the end of
law.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account