With a new preface, Robert Paul Wolff's classic analysis of the foundations of the authority of the state and the problems of political authority and moral autonomy in a democracy.

Innovations in Evidence and Proof' brings together leading scholars and law teachers from the US, Australia, Canada, South Africa, and the UK to explore the latest developments in evidence scholarship.--Résumé de l'éditeur.

This article presents original empirical data generated from the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) Pilot Evaluation of pre-trial witness interviewing (PTWI) in England and Wales. Section 1 introduces the PTWI Pilot and describes the methodological strengths and limitations of our qualitative socio-legal study. Forming the richly documented empirical core of the article, Sections 2–5 identify the principal considerations which seemed to influence case selection for Pilot interviews. An overlapping collection of evidentiary, strategic and circumstantial factors encouraged prosecutors to resort to PTWI, (...) whilst other, countervailing considerations were apprehended as disincentives. Assessments of witness credibility were central to prosecutors’ attempts to balance these competing factors. Section 6 concludes by underlining the potential of qualitative socio-legal studies to promote more nuanced understandings of criminal process, and by extension to make practical contributions to evidence-based criminal procedure reform. (shrink)

The United States is now relying on Reaper and Predator drone strikes as its primary strategy in the continuing “war on terrorism.” This paper argues for the rational scrutiny drone warfare has not yet received. Rather than a Just War critique, my focus is on the rhetoric used to justify drone warfare as the technologically most efficient and militarily appropriate response to terrorist threats. This rationalizing rhetoric evokes mythical claims about American exceptionalism. Myths in turn trigger linguistic frames that have (...) the effect of subverting rational thinking about the ethical uses of technology and the best ways of defending America from terrorists. I conclude by noting the seriousness of this investigation for the present debate over armed drone warfare, for—given the reasons I present—rather than a long-term reduction in the likelihood of terrorists strikes, the U.S.’s reliance on armed drones strikes threatens to institutionalize terrorism as the status quo for the foreseeable future. (shrink)

_In Defense of Anarchism_ is a 1970 book by the philosopher Robert Paul Wolff, in which the author defends individualist anarchism. He argues that individual autonomy and state authority are mutually exclusive and that, as individual autonomy is inalienable, the moral legitimacy of the state collapses.

Democracy is emerging as the political system of choice throughout the world. Peoples now freed from the shackles of totalitarian systems seek to share the benefits made possible by democracy in its "home bases" in North America and Western Europe. Yet, paradoxically, in the last decade liberal democracy has been subjected to an onslaught of criticism from thinkers at its "home bases". Criticisms of democracy have been informed by scholarship in feminism, postmodernism and communitarianism as well as the revived interest (...) in applying ethics to public policy. These criticisms raise important questions about the traditional values - liberalism, neutrality or equality, autonomy, and human rights - thought to justify democracy. They also raise questions about the success of democratic systems in promoting alternative values and in protecting lifestyles not desired by majorities. This anthology contains essays by authors at the forefront of the controversy as well as by acute observers of the processes by which "democratic" public policy is formed. The essays include criticisms of democratic theory and practice, defences of liberalism (the set of values often thought to ground democracy), calls for major revisions of democratic institutions and practices, and recommendations for new ways of understanding our rights and responsibilities as members of democratic communities. Show More Show Less. (shrink)

In 1945, Michael Polanyi achieved, in Full Employment and Free Trade, the integration of Keynesian and monetarist economics that the economics profession did not ahieve until the 1970s. In yet another field, Polanyi saw the heart of important matters long before anyone else.

Konfuzius, Chinas grosser Weiser, ist 1974 wieder einmal von seinen modernen Landsleuten unter Beschuss geraten. In diesem Buch wird das radikal-kritische Bild, das man damals von Konfuzius aufstellte, anhand der Originalquellen uberpruft. Durch diese Methode der Gegenuberstellung versucht der Autor zu zeigen, dass die wahren Anliegen des Meisters und seiner Schule klarer und aktueller zutage treten. Insbesonde sollte deutlich werden, dass Konfuzius' tiefe Einsichten in das menschliche Wesen von einem unerschutterlichen, religios zu nennenden Glauben getragen wurden. In der Post-Mao-Ara sind (...) die Konfuziuskritiker bereits langst wieder selber kritisiert und der Meister teilweise positiver bewertet worden. Der Anhang gibt davon ein gutes Beispiel. Fur den nicht eingeweihten westlichen Leser aber ist die innerchinesische Konfuziusdiskussion nicht ohne weiteres verstandlich. Daher bemuht sich der Autor, die wichtigsten Daten uber Leben und Lehre des Meisters systematisch zu rekonstruieren. Manche Einzelheiten werden dabei neu uberpruft, und die vielen Zitate sind alle neu ubersetzt worden. Somit durfte diese Studie fur Fachleute wie auch fur Laien von Interesse sein. Konfuzius, Chinas immer wieder entthronter Heiliger, der ubrigens nie einen Thron innehatte, wird in seinem Lande noch lange Zeit aktuell bleiben. Daruberhinaus bleibt er eine der grossen Gestalten der Weltgeschichte, die der Menschheit in der Suche nach der wahren Menschlichkeit leuchtend vorangegangen sind.". (shrink)

Karl Marx's great work, Capital, has intrigued and puzzled readers for more than a century by its mystifyingly intricate arguments and dramatic literary embellishments. In this book, Robert Paul Wolff dispels much of the mystery surrounding Capital by providing a literary-philosophical analysis of the text and of Marx's intentions.

“This volume’s twenty-one essays present a spectrum of contemporary understandings and interpretations of the philosophy of Immanuel Kant. In the three general areas of Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason, his ethical theory, and his aesthetics, various particular aspects of Kant’s philosophy are examined in depth. Connecting papers discuss his concept of synthetic and analytic and debate the meaning of the categorical imperative. A wide range of post-war scholarship is represented: all of the papers have been written since 1945, and three (...) appear in this volume for the first time. No philosopher has had a greater influence on contemporary thought than Kant; his influence and the place of his ideas in contemporary philosophical argument are evidenced and illuminated in these essays.”- Publisher. (shrink)

This comprehensive text covers all the standard topics of the contemporary logic course--informal logic, classical deductive logic, induction and scientific reasoning, including the logical fallacies, legal reasoning, and the practice of argument analysis. Exceptionally fine examples and exercises illustrate and reinforce important points throughout. The text is accompanied by a Study Guide for students and an Instructor's Manual.

David Hume (1711-76) is the most important philosopher ever to have written in English. Although best known for his contributions to epistemology, metaphysics, and the philosophy of religion, Hume also made substantial and influential contributions to psychology and the philosophy of mind, ethics, the philosophy of science, political and economic theory, political and social history, and, to a lesser extent, aesthetic and literary theory. Of all of Hume's writings, the philosophically most profound is undoubtedly his first, "A Treatise on Human (...) Nature." "Hume on Morality" introduces and assesses: Hume's life and the background of the "Treatise"; the ideas and text in the "Treatise"; and Hume's continuing importance to philosophy. (shrink)

The writings of the French Marxist philosopher Louis Althusser and his associates have figured prominently in the development of contemporary social theory. The Althusserian school of Structural Marxism is a startlingly original synthesis of Marxism and Modernism, which has produced a large body of work that extends across the human sciences and the humanities to engage a wide variety of cultures, theoretical problems, and political issues. Despite the fact that Althusser himself is widely recognized as a major figure, the breadth, (...) coherence, and achievements of Structural Marxism as a whole have gone largely unrecognized. In this, the most systematic and wide-ranging assessment of Structural Marxism in any language, Resch provides a comprehensive and thematic introduction to the work of Althusser, Nicos Poulantzas, Pierre Macherey, Etienne Balibar, Emmanuel Terray, Terry Eagleton, Göran Therborn, Renée Balibar, Perry Anderson, Pierre-Philippe Rey, Michel Pêchaux, Guy Bois, and others. Resch's sympathetic and critical study demonstrates the enormous significance of Althusser's modernist renewal of Marxist social theory and its ongoing challenge to post-Marxist movements such as postmodernism and neo-liberalism. (shrink)

This article is a contribution to interdisciplinary scholarship addressing the presumption of innocence, especially interdisciplinary conversations between philosophers and jurists. Terminological confusion and methodological traps and errors notoriously beset academic literature addressing the presumption of innocence and related concepts, such as evidentiary presumptions, and the burden and standard of proof in criminal trials. This article is diagnostic, in the sense that its primary objective is to highlight the assumptions—in particular, the disciplinary assumptions—implicit in influential contributions to debates on the presumption (...) of innocence. It advocates a methodologically pluralistic approach, according to which definitions of the presumption of innocence are necessarily sensitive to purpose and method. These relationships and their implications are not always appreciated, and are seldom explicitly elucidated. Notably, philosophers routinely treat the presumption of innocence as epistemic, evidentiary or otherwise featuring directly in practical reasoning. This article identifies jurisprudential and practical reasons why legal scholars and practitioners concerned with criminal procedure and evidence should reject evidentiary interpretations of the presumption of innocence. By encouraging finer-grained engagement with the history and institutional details of common law procedural traditions, the article aims to show why legal scholars might think that philosophical approaches to the presumption of innocence are already methodologically-loaded and, for our purposes, address the wrong questions with deficient concepts. (shrink)