The Moral Dilemma Of Positivism

Authors

Anthony D'Amato, Northwestern University School of LawFollow

Document Type

Article

Repository Date

1986

Keywords

Positivism, Legal Positivism, Natural Law, Law and Morality, MacCormick (Neil)

Subject Categories

Ethics in Religion | Jurisprudence | Law | Legal History | Legal Theory | Public Law and Legal Theory

Abstract

I think there has been an advance in positivist thinking, and that advance consists of the recognition by MacCormick, a positivist, that positivism needs to be justified morally (and not just as an apparent scientific and objective fact about legal systems). But the justification that is required cannot consist in labelling "sovereignty of conscience" as a moral principle, nor in compounding the confusion by claiming that positivism minimally and hence necessarily promotes sovereignty of conscience. We need, from the positivists, a more logical and coherent argument than that. Until one comes along, I continue to believe that positivists inherently have a difficult time in dealing with moral questions once they begin by insisting that law and morality are and ought to be separate from each other.

Repository Citation

D'Amato, Anthony, "The Moral Dilemma Of Positivism" (1986). Faculty Working Papers. 136.
https://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/facultyworkingpapers/136