The Value of MoneyAnderson, Benjamin M. (Benjamin McAlester)
General
The Value of Money
Anderson, Benjamin M. (Benjamin McAlester)
Money
is part of the group which constrains and guides every other individual.
There are, in fact, many sets of moral values: on the one hand, the
social moral values _par excellence_, which the group will _enforce_ in
various ways; and then, for each individual, his own moral values, which
may correspond qualitatively more or less with the group values, or may
antagonize them. But the Moral Law is the will of the group. It is no
simple composite of the moral values of individuals. It has its organic
interrelations with all phases of social life. Economic changes modify
it, legal changes modify it, religious values modify it, all phases of
social life are expressed in it.
In legal theory, we find these three types of doctrine also. The first
type is clearly indicated in the general attitude of American and
English courts, especially toward the common law, though it influences
their interpretation of all law. The law is something which the mind of
man may find out, but may not make. If a new situation arises, the court
"finds" the law--in theory the principle "discovered" by the court was
in the common law at the beginning. Of course, we know that the judge
invents the rule he makes, to fit a novel case, but the judge himself
will not admit it. The theory of the law and the theory of morality have
developed in close connection, and the notion of "natural right" is a
juristic as well as a moral idea. At the other extreme, we have from
certain recent students of law the doctrine that "The Law" is a myth,
that there is nothing but the particular opinion of a particular judge
at a particular time. Individualism cannot go so far in legal theory as
to give every individual in society a chance to put his oar in, and have
a separate law for himself! The social and institutional character of
law is too obvious to permit that. But individualism has gone so far in
legal theory as to deny all objectivity to law except in a given
decision in a particular case. In between these two extreme views,
appear the views of writers like Savigny, or Professor Munroe Smith, for
whom the law is a changing product of social psychology, volitional[27]
rather than intellectual in character, objective enough to the
individual who violates it, or the judge who seeks to pervert it, but
none the less not outside the minds and interests of men. In Professor
Munroe Smith's phrase, law is "that part of the social order which by
virtue of the social will may be supported by physical force."[28] I
venture to describe this type of legal theory as the "social value"
theory of the law. In the chapter on "The Reconciliation of Statics and
Dynamics," _infra_, I have cited certain opinions of Mr. Justice Holmes
which apply it, and even bring into it the notions of the marginal
analysis.
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