Law in Contemporary Society

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PlatoLawyersVsPhilosophers 3 - 24 May 2010 - Main.KalliopeKefallinos
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 I came across this article in the New York Times this morning and it rubbed me the wrong way.

The author uses Plato's rarely-invoked "Theaetetus" to set up a distinction between philosophers and lawyers with relation to time. Specifically, the lawyer's work is such that he is trapped in time (eg. deadlines, time is money, etc.), while the philosopher is able to "take his time" in philosophizing. The consequence is that the lawyer is "small in his soul and shrewd and a shyster." I read the dialogue myself after reading this article, and while I think the author stretches the degree of opposition placed in the text between lawyers and philosophers, the opposition is there.

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 My other rather mundane thought is that a time-crunch doesn't always make for poor ideas. I absolutely believe that there is enormous creativity and good that can come out of timeless brainstorming, but the description of the time allotments in a court trial in Ancient Greece reminded me of debating rules. I remember doing weeks of research on whatever topic we were given, writing out arguments for the affirmative and the negative sides. But many times, it's when I'm at the stand rushing to prepare for the next argument that a killer point occurs to me. The last argument for the negative side is aptly named a crystallization, and for better or worse, good lawyers 'crystallize' all the time. It seems that 'real' philosophers, the kind that wander around falling into wells, never do.

--Jennifer

Added:
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>		Jenn, I don't know how I would define what a philosopher is to say whether or not they exist today. I mentioned professors because I thought it would be an example with which most people would be agree. Looks like I was wrong. My own opinion is that someone wouldn't have to "make it" to be a philosopher...

As for the effect of a time-crunch on poor ideas, have you looked over any of your answers to law school exams post-exam? It's the difference between producing ideas that are good enough and ideas that are good.

-- KalliopeKefallinos - 24 May 2010


Revision 3r3 - 24 May 2010 - 18:15:36 - KalliopeKefallinos
Revision 2r2 - 19 May 2010 - 06:15:45 - JenniferLi
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