Pragmatism and Prejudice of Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

This book investigates the extent to which various scholarly labels are appropriate for the work of Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. As Louis Menand wrote “Holmes has been called a formalist a positivist a utilitarian a realist a historicist a pragmatist (not to mention a nihilist).” Each of the eight chapters investigates one label analyzes the secondary texts that support the use of the term to characterize Holmes’s philosophy and takes a stand on whether or not the category is appropriate for Holmes by assessing his judicial and nonjudicial publications including his books articles and posthumously published correspondences. The thrust of the collection as a whole nevertheless bends toward the stance that Holmes is a pragmatist in his jurisprudence ethics and politics. The final chapter by Susan Haack makes that case explicitly.<BR /><BR />Edited by Seth Vannatta this book will be of particular interest to students and faculty working in law jurisprudence philosophy intellectual history American Studies political science and constitutional theory.