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Ambitious legal thinkers have become mesmerized by moral philosophy, believing that great figures in the philosophical tradition hold the keys to understanding and improving law and justice and even to resolving the most contentious issues of constitutional law. They are wrong, contends Richard Posner in this book. Posner characterizes the current preoccupation with moral and constitutional theory as the latest form of legal mystification—an evasion of the real need of American law, which is for a greater understanding of the social, economic, and political facts out of which great legal controversies arise. In pursuit of that understanding, Posner advocates a rebuilding of the law on the pragmatic basis of open-minded and systematic empirical inquiry and the rejection of cant and nostalgia—the true professionalism foreseen by Oliver Wendell Holmes a century ago. A bracing book that pulls no punches and leaves no pieties unpunctured or sacred cows unkicked, The Problematics of Moral and Legal Theory offers a sweeping tour of the current scene in legal studies—and a hopeful prospect for its future

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preface, 2003 -- Introduction -- Part One: General Theoretical and Empirical Analysis -- 1 Setting the Stage -- 2 The Market for Public Intellectuals -- 3 Care and Insight -- 4 Prediction and Influence -- 5 More Public, Less Intellectual -- Part Two: Genre Studies -- 6 The Literary Critic as Public Intellectual -- 7 Political Satire -- 8 The Jeremiah School -- 9 The Public Philosopher -- 10 The Public Intellectual and the Law -- Conclusion: Improving the Market -- Epilogue, 2003 -- Acknowledgments -- Index

Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- Introduction -- PART ONE The History of Sexuality -- CHAPTER ONE Theoretical Sexology -- CHAPTER TWO Autres Temps~ Autres Moeurs -- CHAPTER THREE Sexuality and Law -- PART TWO A Theory of Sexuality -- CHAPTER FOUR The Biology of Sex -- CHAPTER FIVE Sex and Rationality -- CHAPTER SIX The History of Sexuality from the Perspective ofEconomics -- CHAPTER SEVEN Optimal Regulation of Sexuality -- CHAPTER EIGHT Moral Theories of Sexuality -- PART THREE The Regulation of Sexuality -- CHAPTER NINE Marriage and the Channeling of Sex -- CHAPTER TEN The Control of Pregnancy -- CHAPTER ELEVEN Homosexuality: The Policy Questions -- CHAPTER TWELVE The Sexual Revolution in the Courts -- CHAPTER THIRTEEN Erotic Art, Pornography, and Nudity -- CHAPTER FOURTEEN Coercive Sex -- CHAPTER FIFTEEN Separating Reproduction from Sex -- Conclusion -- Acknowledgments -- Index

Catastrophic risks are much greater than is commonly appreciated. Collision with an asteroid, runaway global warming, voraciously replicating nanomachines, a pandemic of gene-spliced smallpox launched by bioterrorists, and a world-ending accident in a high-energy particle accelerator, are among the possible extinction events that are sufficiently likely to warrant careful study. How should we respond to events that, for a variety of psychological and cultural reasons, we find it hard to wrap our minds around? Posner argues that realism about science and scientists, innovative applications of cost-benefit analysis, a scientifically literate legal profession, unprecedented international cooperation, and a pragmatic attitude toward civil liberties are among the keys to coping effectively with the catastrophic risks.

Intro -- Contents -- Introduction to the Hoover Classics Edition -- Prefatory Note to the Original Edition -- 1. The Problem -- 2. The "Agency within an Agency" Solution -- 3. A Better Solution -- Conclusion -- Appendix: Mission Statement of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service1 -- Index.

Intro -- Contents -- Introduction -- Part I: An Analytic Narrative of the Crisis -- 1. The Calm before the Storm: 2001-2006 -- 2. To the Abyss: December 2007-September 2008 -- 3. The Spectre of the Great Depression: October 2008-March 2009 -- 4. Bottoming Out: Spring 2009-Autumn 2009 -- 5. The Movement for Financial Regulatory Reform: June-December 2009 -- 6. Depression and Aftershock: 2007-? -- Part II: What Lessons Have We Learned from the Crisis? -- 7. The Fragility of Finance -- 8. Keynes Redux -- 9. The Economics of Uncertainty -- 10. The Crisis of Macroeconomics -- Part III: The Way Forward -- 11. Reform You Can Believe In -- 12. America in a World Economy -- Index.

"Following up on his timely and well-received book, A Failure of Capitalism, Richard Posner steps back to take a longer view of the continuing crisis of democratic capitalism as the American and world economies crawl gradually back from the depths to which they had fallen in the autumn of 2008 and the winter of 2009. By means of a lucid narrative of the crisis and a series of analytical chapters pinpointing critical issues of economic collapse and gradual recovery, Posner helps non-technical readers understand business-cycle and financial economics, and financial and governmental institutions, practices, and transactions, while maintaining a neutrality impossible for persons professionally committed to one theory or another. He calls for fresh thinking about the business cycle that would build on the original ideas of Keynes. Central to these ideas is that of uncertainty as opposed to risk. Risk can be quantified and measured. Uncertainty cannot, and in this lies the inherent instability of a capitalist economy. As we emerge from the financial earthquake, a deficit aftershock rumbles. It is in reference to that potential aftershock, as well as to the government's stumbling efforts at financial regulatory reform, that Posner raises the question of the adequacy of our democratic institutions to the economic challenges heightened by the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression. The crisis and the government's energetic response to it have enormously increased the national debt at the same time that structural defects in the American political system may make it impossible to pay down the debt by any means other than inflation or devaluation."--Jacket

Richard Posner argues for a conception of the liberal state based on pragmatic theories of government. He views the actions of elected officials as guided by interests rather than by reason and the decisions of judges by discretion rather than by rules. He emphasizes the institutional and material, rather than moral and deliberative, factors in democratic decision making. Posner argues that democracy is best viewed as a competition for power by means of regular elections. Citizens should not be expected to play a significant role in making complex public policy regarding, say, taxes or missile defense

Intro -- Contents -- Dramatis Personae -- Chronology -- Introduction -- 1. The President's Conduct -- 2. Prosecution and Defense -- 3. The History, Scope, and Form of Impeachment -- 4. Morality, Private and Public -- 5. Should President Clinton Have Been Impeached, and If Impeached Convicted? -- 6. The Kulturkampf -- 7. Lessons for the Future -- 8. The Balance Sheet -- Acknowledgments -- Index.