Arthur Allen Leff
Encyclopedia
Arthur Allen Leff was a professor of law at Yale Law School
who is best known for a series of articles examining whether there is such a thing as a normative law or morality
. Leff answers this question in the negative and follows the consequences to their logical conclusions.
Leff's first major work Economic Analysis of the Law: Some Realism About Nominalism is putatively a book review of Richard Posner
's Economic Analysis of the Law. In actuality it is a critique of the use of any single methodology
to provide normative rules for law and morality. The article is still, today, the main critique of Posner's work and economic analysis generally and is usually read in graduate seminars on Economic Analysis (though sometimes mis-identified as the Legal Realist critique). http://www.columbia.edu/~ak472/econlaw/assign.html. Leff makes two fundamental proposition in SRAN: (1) that all models are only very limited views of the real world. When Posner views the world through the economic model much more is hidden than is revealed; (2) there is no system of logic for preferring one model (e.g. economic, social, political) over another unless an axiom
is inserted early on into that system of logic. Leff notes that the opening of Posner's work does just that -- inserts a proposition that rational economic behavior is to be preferred to other behavior. Leff follows his insight to its logical conclusion
and notes that similarly there is no way, using logic, to prove that any particular act, no matter how horrible, is normatively wrong. Put it another way, one can never prove to another person that a particular set of behaviors is right or that a different set of behaviors is wrong. He states:
Leff continues his critique of attempts to find normative rules in law and morality in Law and Technology: On shoring up a Void and Unspeakable Ethics, Unnatural Law (the latter alludes to the title of a collection of stories by Donald Barthelme
). In these works Leff attempts to directly address whether a normative morality can exist without God. http://www.veritas-ucsb.org/library/johnson/nihilism.html Leff answers the question in the negative. Leff states that absent an ultimate authority figure (i.e. God) handing down moral laws from on-high there is no reason for any person to prefer one set of behavior identified as "moral" to another. Leff terms this "the Grand Sez Who." In particular, it is impossible to resolve the conflict between the rights of the individual and the power of the collective, even though much of the time we can pretend that, for instance, the Constitution tells us where to draw the line. There are bound to be cases where we are left on our own, with no authoritative referee; there is no "brooding omnipresence in the sky", in the words of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
, whom Leff quotes approvingly.
In UE, UL Leff also criticizes the views of Robert Nozick
and Roberto Unger, noting that for all their differences they end up with remarkably similar solutions to the problem of resolving differences among morally sovereign individuals: agglomerations of the like-minded, geographically separated. Leff claims that this move merely shifts the problem. Against Nozick, Leff states that his entire book, Anarchy, State, and Utopia
, is built on the naked assertion that "individuals have rights", and that an entirely different yet equally valid argument could be built on the premise "individuals have duties". The arbitrary choice of starting point decides everything.
Leff states as follows in the closing of UE, UL:
Leff was an agnostic but his writings have been influential on Christian
discussions of morality in the modern Era. Phillip E. Johnson
has suggested that Leff's work is really a critique of the God is dead
argument. http://www.veritas-ucsb.org/library/johnson/nihilism.html Johnson argues that the presence of evil in the world is evidence that there is an absolute morality which requires an absolute authority. Other Christian scholars have also applied Leff's critique to secular arguments for a normative morality. http://www.americanvision.org/articlearchive/08-09-06.asp
Truth Decay: Defending Christianity Against the Challenges of Postmodernism http://www.amazon.com/dp/0830822283
The Gagging of God http://www.amazon.com/dp/031024286X
Nihilism and the End of Law http://www.apologetics.org/Resources/tabid/61/NihilismandtheEndofLaw/tabid/101/Default.aspx
Yale Law School
Yale Law School, or YLS, is the law school of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Established in 1824, it offers the J.D., LL.M., J.S.D. and M.S.L. degrees in law. It also hosts visiting scholars, visiting researchers and a number of legal research centers...
who is best known for a series of articles examining whether there is such a thing as a normative law or morality
Morality
Morality is the differentiation among intentions, decisions, and actions between those that are good and bad . A moral code is a system of morality and a moral is any one practice or teaching within a moral code...
. Leff answers this question in the negative and follows the consequences to their logical conclusions.
Leff's first major work Economic Analysis of the Law: Some Realism About Nominalism is putatively a book review of Richard Posner
Richard Posner
Richard Allen Posner is an American jurist, legal theorist, and economist who is currently a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Chicago and a Senior Lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School...
's Economic Analysis of the Law. In actuality it is a critique of the use of any single methodology
Methodology
Methodology is generally a guideline for solving a problem, with specificcomponents such as phases, tasks, methods, techniques and tools . It can be defined also as follows:...
to provide normative rules for law and morality. The article is still, today, the main critique of Posner's work and economic analysis generally and is usually read in graduate seminars on Economic Analysis (though sometimes mis-identified as the Legal Realist critique). http://www.columbia.edu/~ak472/econlaw/assign.html. Leff makes two fundamental proposition in SRAN: (1) that all models are only very limited views of the real world. When Posner views the world through the economic model much more is hidden than is revealed; (2) there is no system of logic for preferring one model (e.g. economic, social, political) over another unless an axiom
Axiom
In traditional logic, an axiom or postulate is a proposition that is not proven or demonstrated but considered either to be self-evident or to define and delimit the realm of analysis. In other words, an axiom is a logical statement that is assumed to be true...
is inserted early on into that system of logic. Leff notes that the opening of Posner's work does just that -- inserts a proposition that rational economic behavior is to be preferred to other behavior. Leff follows his insight to its logical conclusion
Conclusion
-Logic:*Logical consequence*Affirmative conclusion from a negative premise, a logical fallacy-Music:*Conclusion , the end of a musical composition*The Conclusion, an album by Bombshell Rocks*Conclusion of an Age, an album by the band Sylosis...
and notes that similarly there is no way, using logic, to prove that any particular act, no matter how horrible, is normatively wrong. Put it another way, one can never prove to another person that a particular set of behaviors is right or that a different set of behaviors is wrong. He states:
- I will put the current situation as sharply as possible: there is today no way of ‘proving’ that napalming babies is bad except by asserting it (in a louder and louder voice), or by defining it as so, early in one’s game, and then later slipping it through, in a whisper, as a conclusion.
Leff continues his critique of attempts to find normative rules in law and morality in Law and Technology: On shoring up a Void and Unspeakable Ethics, Unnatural Law (the latter alludes to the title of a collection of stories by Donald Barthelme
Donald Barthelme
Donald Barthelme was an American author known for his playful, postmodernist style of short fiction. Barthelme also worked as a newspaper reporter for the Houston Post, managing editor of Location magazine, director of the Contemporary Arts Museum in Houston , co-founder of Fiction Donald...
). In these works Leff attempts to directly address whether a normative morality can exist without God. http://www.veritas-ucsb.org/library/johnson/nihilism.html Leff answers the question in the negative. Leff states that absent an ultimate authority figure (i.e. God) handing down moral laws from on-high there is no reason for any person to prefer one set of behavior identified as "moral" to another. Leff terms this "the Grand Sez Who." In particular, it is impossible to resolve the conflict between the rights of the individual and the power of the collective, even though much of the time we can pretend that, for instance, the Constitution tells us where to draw the line. There are bound to be cases where we are left on our own, with no authoritative referee; there is no "brooding omnipresence in the sky", in the words of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. was an American jurist who served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1902 to 1932...
, whom Leff quotes approvingly.
In UE, UL Leff also criticizes the views of Robert Nozick
Robert Nozick
Robert Nozick was an American political philosopher, most prominent in the 1970s and 1980s. He was a professor at Harvard University. He is best known for his book Anarchy, State, and Utopia , a right-libertarian answer to John Rawls's A Theory of Justice...
and Roberto Unger, noting that for all their differences they end up with remarkably similar solutions to the problem of resolving differences among morally sovereign individuals: agglomerations of the like-minded, geographically separated. Leff claims that this move merely shifts the problem. Against Nozick, Leff states that his entire book, Anarchy, State, and Utopia
Anarchy, State, and Utopia
Anarchy, State, and Utopia is a work of political philosophy written by Robert Nozick in 1974. This minarchist book was the winner of the 1975 National Book Award...
, is built on the naked assertion that "individuals have rights", and that an entirely different yet equally valid argument could be built on the premise "individuals have duties". The arbitrary choice of starting point decides everything.
Leff states as follows in the closing of UE, UL:
- All I can say is this: it looks as if we are all we have. Given what we know about ourselves, and each other, this is an extraordinarily unappetizing prospect; looking around the world, it appears that if all men are brothers, the ruling model is Cain and Abel. Neither reason, nor love, nor even terror, seems to have worked to make us “good,” and worse than that, there is no reason why any thing should. Only if ethics were something unspeakable by us could law be unnatural, and therefore unchallengeable. As things stand now, everything is up for grabs. Nevertheless:
- Napalming babies is bad.
- Starving the poor is wicked.
- Buying and selling each other is depraved.
- Those who stood up and died resisting Hitler, Stalin, AminAminIn Arabic Amin ' for males means 'faithful, trustworthy'. The female equivalent is Amina, which is a widely used name among female Arabs .-People:امین*al-Amin, nickname of Muhammad in his youth*Amin Ahsan Islahi...
, and Pol PotPol PotSaloth Sar , better known as Pol Pot, , was a Cambodian Maoist revolutionary who led the Khmer Rouge from 1963 until his death in 1998. From 1976 to 1979, he served as the Prime Minister of Democratic Kampuchea....
—and General Custer too— have earned salvation.
- Those who acquiesced deserve to be damnedDamnationDamnation is the concept of everlasting divine punishment and/or disgrace, especially the punishment for sin as threatened by God . A damned being "in damnation" is said to be either in Hell, or living in a state wherein they are divorced from Heaven and/or in a state of disgrace from God's favor...
.
- There is in the world such a thing as evil.
- [All together now:] Sez who?
- God help us.
Leff was an agnostic but his writings have been influential on Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
discussions of morality in the modern Era. Phillip E. Johnson
Phillip E. Johnson
Phillip E. Johnson is a retired UC Berkeley law professor and author. He became a born-again Christian while a tenured professor and is considered the father of the intelligent design movement...
has suggested that Leff's work is really a critique of the God is dead
God is dead
"God is dead" is a widely-quoted statement by German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. It first appears in The Gay Science , in sections 108 , 125 , and for a third time in section 343...
argument. http://www.veritas-ucsb.org/library/johnson/nihilism.html Johnson argues that the presence of evil in the world is evidence that there is an absolute morality which requires an absolute authority. Other Christian scholars have also applied Leff's critique to secular arguments for a normative morality. http://www.americanvision.org/articlearchive/08-09-06.asp
Responses to Leff
Posner has responded to Leff by stating that the purpose of any methodology or model is to simplify. Otherwise it would be impossible to achieve any kind of understanding of the real world.Major Articles
- Unconscionability and the Code-The Emperor's New Clause, 115 U. Pa. L. Rev. 485 (1967)
- Economic Analysis of Law: Some Realism About Nominalism, 60 Va. L. Rev. 451 (1974).
- Law and Technology: On Shoring up a Void, 8 Ottawa L. Rev. 536 (1976).
- Unspeakable Ethics, Unnatural Law, 1979 Duke L.J. 1229 (1979).
Recent Theological Works Referencing Leff
The Gospel According to Relativity http://www.amazon.com/dp/1597811912Truth Decay: Defending Christianity Against the Challenges of Postmodernism http://www.amazon.com/dp/0830822283
The Gagging of God http://www.amazon.com/dp/031024286X
Nihilism and the End of Law http://www.apologetics.org/Resources/tabid/61/NihilismandtheEndofLaw/tabid/101/Default.aspx