Overcoming Law

Rating:
Summary: Great essays. His other books are better.
Review: Another reviewer noted that this is the best intro to Posner. It probably is. The essays here touch on legal reasoning, economics, philosophy of law, sexuality and many other topics, giving the reader a 'survey' view of Posner. Most books of essays, though, have a cohesiveness that I did not detect here, which is fine, so long as the intention is ONLY to get a sampling.

I can not stress enough how phenomenal a writer Judge Posner is. The essays are both challenging and readable; contraversial yet objective. In one, Posner defends his book 'Sex and Reason' against radical feminism. In another he examines Richard Rorty and the impact that modern philosophy has on law. Perhaps the best essay is on pragmatic legal reasoning, entitled "What am I? A potted plant?'.

Besides the lack of cohesion, the biggest reason for the subtracted star is that, while Posner discusses economics, legal method and gender issues, his full length books on the subjects are better. Respectively, they are "The Economics of Justice", "The Problems of Jurisprudence" and "Sex and Reason." For the student of any one of these areas, read those first, read this after. Everyone else, start here!

Rating:
Summary: Posner is overrated.
Review: he's really not that bright. Go read Lon Fuller instead.

Rating:
Summary: Posnerian Patchwork Quilt
Review: Judge Richard Posner's "Overcoming Law" is a rich, lucid, scholarly work that reflects the staggering breadth of the man's knowledge and his approach to law: legal pragmatism. For Posner, "pragmatism" is "an umbrella term for diverse tendencies in philosophical thought" that "debunks all pretenses to having constructed a pipeline to the truth." Rather than focus on such "pretenses," Posner's pragmatism is merely "practical and instrumental," interested "in [only] what works and what is useful rather than what 'really' is." With such cannons in mind, Posner proceeds to highlight flaws in the works of Bruce Ackerman, Robert Bork, Ronald Dworkin, Mary Ann Glendon, Morton Horwitz, Catharine MacKinnin, Richard Rorty, Cass Sunstein, and many others.

No one is safe from Posner's wrath, and one soon learns that Posner's pragmatism is the cure for all the each and every intellectual disease. All, that is, except pragmatism itself. The problem that I have with Posner's pragmatism is that it creates a void that cannot be filled. Since we can't "really" know anything, only that which "works" should be valued. Of course, when circumstances chance, so will what "works," resulting in a philosophy that is constantly in flux and eternally relative to its given time and space. Posner's pragmatism is a great method, but that's it.

"Pragmatism is both for and against common sense." This sentence pretty much sums Posner's view up in a nutshell. Posner is a brilliant mind, no doubt about it, and I enjoyed his critiques of everyone he brings within the cross-hairs of his pen. But a guarded skepticism is all that Posner gives us "a here's what wrong with X, even if I don't have any better ideas" solution for everything.

From a critical standpoint of all theories attacked, this book is the work of a powerful mind and a joy to read most of the time. I really enjoy reading scholars who have the stones to stand up to certain quasi-intellectual movements, such as "Critical Legal Studies" and "Feminist Jurisprudence." Posner decimates both, with class and eloquence.

Finally, a few words with respect to my "Patchwork Quilt" metaphor. Posner's "Overcoming Law" lays an adequate and effective foundation, and then applies it to a myriad to subjects and scholars. That makes this work undoubtedly valuable to everyone who had read everything Posner has, but lessens it's value to all that have not read everyone that Posner attacks. That said, "Overcoming Law" is more a collection of critical essays rather than a book outlining Posner's own jurisprudence. Perhaps much like pragmatism itself, then, "Overcoming Law" is more like an exercise rather than an exposition.