"Widely acclaimed for its originality and penetration, this award-winning study of American thought in the twentieth century examines the ways in which the spread of pragmatism and scientific naturalism affected developments in philosophy, social science, and law, and traces the effects of these developments on traditional assumptions of democratic theory."
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"Library Journal Fills a major gap for mature students of American thought and political theory." -- Choice
"Filson Historical Quarterly Embodies the broad scope and balanced judgment to make it henceforth one of the standard historical syntheses of American ideas and to establish its author as a leading intellectual historian." -- Journal of Southern History
"Brilliant." -- Key Reporter
"Journal of PoliticsWill greatly help social scientists to understand better the impact of scientific naturalism on the social sciences." -- Political Theory
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A True Classic Analysis,
By Ronald H. Clark (WASHINGTON, DC USA) - See all my reviews (VINE VOICE) (TOP 1000 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)
This review is from: The Crisis of Democratic Theory: Scientific Naturalism and the Problem of Value (Paperback)
This book rightly has become somewhat of a widely-cited classic since its publication in 1973. The author effectively explains first the fundamental changes generated in American thought(beginning around 1910 and continuing through WW II) as a result of evolutionary theory. Basically, the movement was toward secular empirical-based research, rather than teleological or metaphysical approaches. This development the author designates as "scientific naturalism." This approach took hold as universities spread, the social sciences expanded, and professional organizations multiplied (such as the American Political Science Ass'n). The goal was objectively-tested fact and scientific objectivity. Eventually there was a strong counter reaction from those who argued this approach rejected morality and ethical values.
One of the key areas examined by the author is the law, and specifically the activities of the legal realists. Their severe criticisms of the legal system and reliance upon social scientific approaches generated a hostile response. Was law being stripped of any connection with morality and ethics? A similar debate was underway as regard politics. The rise of totalitarianism in Germany and Russia placed this debate into a whole new context: was scientific naturalism sapping our abililty to fight off this threat since it had rejected morality and ethical values? In this connection, the author discusses Robert Maynard Hutchins, Mortimer Adler, the Catholic church, Walter Lippman, and Rheinhold Niebuhr among others who weighed in on this issue. Particularly interesting is the chapter on the "Crisis in Jurisprudence" where particularly Justice Holmes came under attack as stripping law of any morality. Pound, Lon Fuller, Walter Kennedy and others did actually persuade some leading realists to reconsider to an extent their positions on these issues. Yet another reaction took the form of supporters of scientific naturalism using their approaches to show the value and strengths of democracy, and how scientific naturalism was integral to democratic thought. This group sought to demonstrate that absolutism in values led to political authoritarianism. As the cold war developed, individuals like Boorstin and Dahl asserted their arguments in support of tolerance and pragmatism. American democracy itself became a normative concept and model. It is hard to do full justice to this fine book in such a short amount of space. It really gives the old synapses a good work out, and it deals with these concepts very effectively. There are ample notes and a very helpful "note on sources." Ironically, the author moved away from this area in his subsequent work (he is currently a law prof at NY School of Law) as he wrote books on more centrally legal issues (e.g., Brandeis and the Erie Doctrine; diversity jurisdiction; and most recently federalism). However, he left behind this excellent resource to guide the rests of us through this turbulent period of American thought.
0 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Legal Realism and the Democracy that isn't there,
By
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This review is from: The Crisis of Democratic Theory: Scientific Naturalism and the Problem of Value (Paperback)
Purcell, Edward A. Jr. 1973: *The Crisis of Democratic Theory: Scientific Naturalism and the Problem of Value,* This is a cite in Posner 1995, p. 153, in the context of *Catholic Jurisprudence.* I discuss it because of the impression the following Purcell piece made on me. This book had an impact on me equalled only by the works of C. Wright Mills - it is unfortunate for us all that it did not receive the widespread publicity of Mills' works. One basic theme is that intense efforts were not able to find a compelling reason to elevate democracy to a higher plane than other forms of government. (An article by Roger B. Myerson in the June 2008 issue of the American Economic Review is relevant to this point, particularly at his pages 600-601). Hutchins pointed out that we were not all that sterling an example of democracy ourselves, and thus could not credibly promote the concept around the world. The Great Depression called into question the efficacy of democratic government, and in fact there were high level moves toward instituting dictatorial rule in the U.S. The performance of the proliferating dictatorships in the 1930s in social control, and above that, in limiting the impact of the economic depression [Russia almost completely avoided the Great Depression - Fitzpatrick 1999]. Detailed page cites follow.
Notes and comments: *p. 76: an early Brandeis brief contained 2 pages of legal analysis and over 100 of sociological statistics and analysis; 79: West's National Reporter publishing system recorded so many conflicted decisions that it gave the Legal Realists a lot to work with [see Kairys 1993 on the Supreme Court flip-flops]; 91 *IS OR OUGHT*, a theme that runs through this book see p. 163 also, and pragmatism in his index; 93 Legal Realists were attacked as *undermining democracy* - Chapter 7 - WW-I led to the spread of European dictatorship, as many foresaw. Purcell 1973 makes the point, citing Hutchins, Beard, and Barnes that our entry into both WW-I and WW-II was promoted by warmongers, and was expected to be a disaster for democracy, particularly since the U.S. was not enough of a democracy to propagate the system to other nations - a point also made forcefully by Dodd and Oppenheimer 1993. Cull 1995 and Mahl 1998 describe and document in detail the propaganda effort by primarily the British, dragging the U.S. into WW-II. See Zaharoff in the index for his role in starting WW-I, boasting to a paramour that *I started wars so I could sell arms to both sides.* See Toland 1982 for Roosevelt dragging us into WW-II, and April Glaspie for sandbagging Saddam Hussein into starting the Iraq versus Kuwait war. The deception of getting the other side to make the *first move* is an ancient one, and Lincoln has been accused of using fort Sumpter in this manner, as was the *bombing* of the battleship Maine, in the start of the Spanish-American War. (GOOGLE fake terror the road to dictatorship for one history going back to Roman times). See also Dodd and Oppenheimer 1993 and Skocpol and Amenta 1986 for similar basic considerations. A GOOGLE search on Michels Iron Law of Oligarchy turns up one of the KEY factors in this whole matter, although many of the hits, including the usually good wikipedia completely miss the point of Michels' insight, confusing the bureaucracy [Leviathan] as a driving force, whereas in Michels' view government and the bureaucracy are no more than agents who march to the orders of a relatively tiny oligarchy. One of the world's greatest sociologists, James Coleman, reviewing his lifetime career in sociology was only able to give one counterexample to Michels' Law, a small typographers union which successfully resisted an attack from its International. Coleman attributed the successful resistance to the close personal face to face interactions and trust among the members of the small union. Coleman said that consideration of that example was the starting point in his development of the theory of human capital. Purcell has a terrific article that was reprinted as noted below: Purcell, Edward A. Jr. 1969: American Jurisprudence between the Wars: Legal Realism and the Crisis of American Democratic Theory,* reprinted from American Historical Review, 75 (1969), pp. 424-446 by permission in Friedman and Scheiber eds, 1978. A superb treatment of the development and attacks on the legal realism school of thought. Cites Thurman Arnold 5 times, Llewellyn, Pound, Beard, Holmes, plus lists 26 significant contributors to legal realism (note 9, p. 552 in Friedman and Scheiber). He notes that the same people who aggressively promoted WW-II were those who seemed to benefit from the irrationality in the legal system. The very legal realists who were attacking the legal system as totalitarian and despotic were THEMSELVES attacked as disloyal, anti-democratic, and supportive of totalitarianism in the U.S. and other nations. This particular twist is used over and over - see the Political Prairie Fire (Morlan 1955) for the relentless hounding of anti-WW-I persons as *disloyal* and failing to *back the boys* as in Johnson's Vietnam war. The reverse twist is that the supposedly *disloyal* persons would have saved thousands of American lives and immense amounts of U.S. wealth by keeping us out of other peoples' wars. Cull 1995 and Mahl 1998 and Toland 1982 treat in depth the dragging of the U.S. into WW-I and WW-II. See Glick 1986 on the history of the Judiciary exempting itself from liability for abuse of power. [GOOGLE willy brown for the California Legislature cutting its Supreme Court's budget when the Court very seriously displeased the Legislature). Posner 1995 cites another story on the death of legal realism on his p. 287. See Kelman 1987 for more on the Critical Legal Studies movement, and Miller(AS) 1984 for many subtle and not so subtle viewpoints on the *constitution publique* versus the *constitution confidentielle.* {[ADDEDIN20070612] for the high percentage rates of error in death row prisoners (2.3%) and murder-rape convictions (3.3%) see my file LEGAL REALISM DNA corrects20070612}. For a recent review in the context of economics, see Stephenson, Matthew C. 2009. "Legal Realism for Economists." Journal of Economic Perspectives, 23(2): 191-211. [...]
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