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9 - Trompe l'Oeil Liberalism

from Part III - Pragmatic Liberalism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 February 2018

Justin Desautels-Stein
Justin Desautels-Stein
Affiliation:
University of Colorado Boulder
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Summary

This chapter develops a critique of pragmatic liberalism. It identifies three illusions generated in the structure and style of pragmatic liberalism. The first is a surface illusion in which social transformation is only thought possible by mild reform or systemic substitution. The second is a conceptual illusion in which settled legal concepts are regarded as far more important than our practices of legal argument. The third is an historical illusion in which pragmatism melts out into an everlasting present, denying the visibility of contemporary structure.
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The Jurisprudence of Style
A Structuralist History of American Pragmatism and Liberal Legal Thought
 , pp. 262 - 291
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2018

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