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Aristotelianism in Morris R. Cohen's Legal Philosophy
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 February 2016
Extract
The philosophy of law was a major component of Morris Raphael Cohen's commitment to philosophy. “To examine anew the problem of social ends in relation to law and morals and the life of civilization” he considered “an essential task of philosophy”. Where better than in the legal arena could one follow the living play of the social order in the light of logical method and ethical purpose? How did Cohen acquire this classical view of the task of philosophy, which in the early twentieth century seemed so foreign to his compatriots?
For the Hebrews, God is a law giver, Moses a law teacher, and the Talmud, commentaries on the Law. Even God has to forbear from infringing the duty to be just. “My interest in the philosophy of law”, said Morris né Moses, “has its roots in the fact that my very first education was Mosaic and Talmudic legislation”.
- Type
- The Philosophy of Morris R. Cohen - A Symposium
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © Cambridge University Press and The Faculty of Law, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem 1981
References
1 “Jurisprudence as a Philosophical Discipline”, RL, 136.
2 A Tribute to Professor Morris Raphael Cohen, Teacher and Philosopher, Published by “The Youth who Sat at his Feet” (N.Y., 1928) 87. Hereinafter called A Tribute.
3 Cf. Huntington Cairns, “His initial interest in law was due to his dissatisfaction with the course of judicial decisions in labor cases”, “The Legal Philosophy of Morris R. Cohen” (1960) 14 Vand. L.R. 243. See also Cohen's “The Faith of a Logician”, “My interest in this field was first stimulated by… judicial decisions in labor cases”, SPS. 27.
4 LSO, Preface, p. v.
5 DJ, 33.
6 On the Scot Thomas Davidson (1840–1900), whom Percival Chubb called a “devout Aristotelian”, see Knight's, William Memorials of Thomas Davidson, the Wandering Scholar (Boston and London, 1907)Google Scholar, especially the Appendix. Two of Davidson's books on Greek subjects have been reprinted. Aristotle and Ancient Educational Ideals was reprinted in 1964 by the Burt Franklin Research and Source Book Series (no. 225); Education of the Greek People and its Influence on Civilization was reprinted by the AMS Press in 1971.
7 DJ, 109.
8 Rosenfield, Leonora Cohen, Portrait of a Philosopher, Morris R. Cohen in Life and Letters (N.Y., Harcourt, 1962) 53.Google Scholar Hereafter called Portrait.
9 Letter dated 7 March, 1912; see Portrait, 297.
10 Letter of 9 March, 1912; see Portrait, 242.
11 Portrait, 73. At a testimonial dinner to Cohen, Frankfurter said, “In those days, I had to… review books in law and they appeared duly over my initials in the Harvard Law Review… Morris wrote those reviews… I simply would put a law book in his hands and say, ‘Morris, what do you think of that’ and there are those reviews”. A Tribute, 41.
12 DJ, 133.
13 On the Conference on Legal and Social philosophy and its consequences, see DJ, 178–180, and Portrait, 188.
14 A brief passage from the Fifth Book of the Nicomachean Ethics is included in RJLP, 374–375.
15 The manuscript must date from before 1916, in which year Roscoe Pound was named Dean of the Harvard Law School, for it refers to him as “Professor” Pound. They started corresponding in 1912.
16 See Kohler, Josef, Moderne Rechtsprobleme (2d ed., 1913)Google Scholar and Tourtoulon, Pierre de, Principes philosophiques de l'histoire du droit (1st ed., 1908)Google Scholar. Cohen's first book was an edition of this work, Philosophy in the Development of Law, which appeared in 1922 with his Editorial Preface, published in the Modem Legal Philosophy Series by the Association of American Law Schools, whose Editorial Board he had been invited to join in 1917.
17 RN, Preface, p. xiii.
18 LSO, Preface, p. vi.
19 RN, Preface, p. xiii.
20 “The Place of Logic in the Law”, LSO, 182.
21 “Jurisprudence as a Philosophical Discipline”, RL, 133.
22 “Legal Philosophy in the Americas”, RL, 104. See also its chapter on “The Rational Basis of Legal Institutions”.
23 philosophical Review (1916).
24 RL, 190.
25 “Law and Scientific Method”, LSO, 197.
26 “My Philosophy of Law”, RL, 4.
27 “Absolutisms in Law and Morals”, RL, 80.
28 “Moral Aspects of the Criminal Law”, RL, 27.
29 “Rule vs. Discretion”, LSO, 262.
30 ibid., at 266.
31 Ibid., at 267.
32 March 1, 1980. The Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy held a Conference on Cohen at Texas A. and M. University, College Station, Texas, on February 29 and March 1, 1980, in honor of the centenary of the birth of Morris R. Cohen.
33 RN, 165.
34 “Vision and Technique in Philosophy”, FL, 371.
35 “The Faith of a Logician”, SPS, 25.
36 Letter of 13 December, 1937. See Portrait, 120.
37 Portrait, 122. In logic. Cohen did not think that Aristotle had said the last word. In 1923, he spoke of the limited applicability in modern times of the traditional Aristotelian logic. (See “On the Logic of Fiction” (1923) 20 Journal of Philosophy 81). The Preface to ILSM (1934) states that “we think that the newer achievements in exact logic have served to extend as well as to correct the Aristotelian logic” (p. xi). The Foreword to PL (1944) calls “modern logic a more flexible instrument than the Aristotelian syllogism” (p. xi).