In search of the hidden nature – natural kinds and legal language

Redakcja — Wed, 05 Jul 2017 18:46:59 +0000

Mgr Bartosz Janik

Jagiellonian University

English abstract: In the theoretical legal literature there are views that consistently want to combine natural kinds with semantics of legal language (M. Moore, D. Brink, N. Stavropoulos). The motivation for creating such a theories is the desire to get the semantics of the legal language to be realistic. This semantics should enable the formulation of an objective theory of legal determination. Very often, the obvious objection to such theories is that the legal terms do not correspond to any objects in the world. The purpose of this article is to examine these ideas and attempt to show that the nature of the legal terms directly shows the impossibility of building an objective discourse for such terms (where objectivity is understood as objectivity in the scientific sense). Regardless, such theories can be formulated and treated as objective but the objectivity of those theories will come from methods of construction of the objects and not from their nature.

Keywords: natural kinds, essentialism, legal theory, realism

Language: Polish

Received: 02.10.2016
Accepted: 13.11.2016

Published: Number 1(14)/2017, pp. 66-73.

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Essentialism and Human Nature. Excerpts from “Unfinished Dialogue”

Redakcja — Tue, 27 Sep 2016 15:04:15 +0000

Prof. Isaiah Berlin, Prof. dr hab. Beata Polanowska-Sygulska

Oxford University / Jagiellonian University in Kraków

Abstract: The text consists of the excerpts from a book “Unfinished Dialogue” by Isaiah Berlin and Beata Polanowska-Sygulska published in New York in 2006. The passages include one of the letters that the British philosopher wrote to Beata Polanowska-Sygulska in 1986, printed earlier in „The New York Review of Books”, and a transcript from a discussion between Isaiah Berlin, Beata Polanowska-Sygulska and John Gray that took place in 1988.

Keywords: Isaiah Berlin, Unfinished Dialogue, essentialism, human nature
(English title, abstract and keywords supplied by the editors)