--- Alexander Nekvasil <a8504902 at unet.univie.ac.at> wrote:
> Chuck Grimes <cgrimes at rawbw.com> writes:
>
> > [From Poll of Top 5... thread]:
> >
> > ``..they are correctt about some things. Judge
> Posner. Carl Schmitt
> > (in fact an actual Nazi.) Leo Strauss.
> Nietzsche..'' jks
> >
> > ----------
> >
> > Really Justin, I am still waiting to hear a
> defense of Posner in some
> > detail---other than to say he's a nice guy, and
> you liked working
> > under him. Content, man, content! Do you really
> want to mount a
> > defense of his defense of Gore v Bush?
No, but I've given my defense of Judge Posner, for whom I did NOT clerk, btw; my judge was just in the office next to his, previously on the list, you can search the archives. And he's never claimed to be a nice guy. I don't say he's not, I like him a lot, actually, but unlike my judges (two of whom were XX chromosomes types rather than XYs), he's not known for that especially. See his somewhat ironical self-evaluation in a New Yorker Profile from around 2001.
Brief version: he's erudite, extraordinary prolific, imaginative and fertile. I am very far from agreeing with eveything he says, especially his political and economic views. But he's always interesting, and has lots to say that doesn't engage those viewsd particularly. You can read hundreds of pages of Posner without more than the occasional reminder that he's a right-winger.
His accomplishments include: being a founder and prime developer of the Economics and Law school and, seperately of the revival of pragmatism as a legal and political theory. He has written several books on these topics. The E&L stuff helped revolutionize antitrust theory, where Posner's books are also standard, and he's applied in books in torts and intellectual property. His Sex and Reason is a brilliant economic/sociobiological exploration of almost every aspect of human sexuality. His LAea nd Literature involves innovative readings of Homer and Kafka and Melville and mines literary siurces for legal insights and vice versa.
I coould go on, but I have to go now. I generally recommend that people who want an introduction to Posner read some of the shorter essays in Overcoming Law, a rather diverse collection on various topics.
It is
> fitting irony that Posner
> > should be on a list of public intellectuals, put
> there for writing
> > about the decay of public intellectuals...
The worst book of his I've read, that one. But he has so many and some of them are excellent.
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