Naturalizing Jurisprudence: Essays on American Realism and Naturalism in Legal Philosophy

Brian Leiter is widely recognized as the leading philosophical interpreter of the jurisprudence of American Legal Realism, as well as the most influential proponent of the relevance of the naturalistic turn in philosophy to the problems of legal philosophy. This volume collects newly revised versions of ten of his best-known essays, which set out his reinterpretation of the Legal Realists as prescient philosophical naturalists; critically engage with jurisprudential responses to Legal Realism, from legal positivism to Critical Legal Studies; connect the Realist program to the methodology debate in contemporary jurisprudence; and explore the general implications of a naturalistic world view for problems about the objectivity of law and morality. Leiter has supplied a lengthy new introductory essay, as well as postscripts to several of the essays, in which he responds to challenges to his interpretive and philosophical claims by academic lawyers and philosophers.

This volume will be essential reading for anyone interested in jurisprudence, as well as for philosophers concerned with the consequences of naturalism in moral and legal philosophy.

• Provides a definitive philosophical interpretation of American Legal Realism, one of the most influential schools of modern legal thought, and its relationship with other models, including legal positivism and Critical Legal Studies
• Collects and revises Brian Leiter's most influential essays in one volume, including Legal Realism and Legal Positivism Reconsidered , and includes postscripts in which Leiter replies to criticisms of his work
• Offers a unique insight into naturalism, a core debate in modern philosophy, and the foreshadowing of the naturalist school in the work of early American legal realists