Justice, Law, and Argument

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xiii

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2. Concerning Justice

   1. Concerning Justice

      • Ch. Perelman, Harold J. Berman

      Pages 1-23

3. Five Lectures on Justice

   1. Justice and its Problems

      • Ch. Perelman, Harold J. Berman

      Pages 24-33

   2. Equity and the Rule of Justice

      • Ch. Perelman, Harold J. Berman

      Pages 34-43

   3. On the Justice of Rules

      • Ch. Perelman, Harold J. Berman

      Pages 44-54

   4. Justice and Justification

      • Ch. Perelman, Harold J. Berman

      Pages 55-65

   5. Justice and Reason

      • Ch. Perelman, Harold J. Berman

      Pages 66-75

   6. Justice and Reasoning

      • Ch. Perelman, Harold J. Berman

      Pages 76-82

   7. Equality and Justice

      • Ch. Perelman, Harold J. Berman

      Pages 83-87

   8. Justice Re-Examined

      • Ch. Perelman, Harold J. Berman

      Pages 88-94

   9. The Use and Abuse of Confused Notions

      • Ch. Perelman, Harold J. Berman

      Pages 95-106

   10. The Justification of Norms

       • Ch. Perelman, Harold J. Berman

       Pages 107-113

   11. Law and Morality

       • Ch. Perelman, Harold J. Berman

       Pages 114-119

   12. Law and Rhetoric

       • Ch. Perelman, Harold J. Berman

       Pages 120-124

   13. Legal Reasoning

       • Ch. Perelman, Harold J. Berman

       Pages 125-135

   14. Law, Logic and Epistemology

       • Ch. Perelman, Harold J. Berman

       Pages 136-147

   15. Law, Philosophy and Argumentation

       • Ch. Perelman, Harold J. Berman

       Pages 148-162

   16. What the Philosopher May Learn from the Study of Law

       • Ch. Perelman, Harold J. Berman

       Pages 163-174

4. Back Matter

   Pages 175-188

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This collection contains studies on justice, juridical reasoning and argumenta­ tion which contributed to my ideas on the new rhetoric. My reflections on justice, from 1944 to the present day, have given rise to various studies. The ftrst of these was published in English as The Idea of Justice and the Problem of Argument (Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1963). The others, of which several are out of print or have never previously been published, are reunited in the present volume. As justice is, for me, the prime example of a "confused notion", of a notion which, like many philosophical concepts, cannot be reduced to clarity without being distorted, one cannot treat it without recourse to the methods of reasoning analyzed by the new rhetoric. In actuality, these methods have long been put into practice by jurists. Legal reasoning is fertile ground for the study of argumentation: it is to the new rhetoric what mathematics is to formal logic and to the theory of demonstrative proof. It is important, then, that philosophers should not limit their methodologi­ cal studies to mathematics and the natural sciences. They must not neglect law in the search for practical reason. I hope that these essays lead to be a better understanding of how law can enrich philosophical thought. CH. P.

• Epistemology
• formal logic
• justice
• logic
• morality
• philosophy

• Centre de Philosophie du Droit, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium

  Ch. Perelman

• Harvard University, USA

  Harold J. Berman

Policies and ethics