“Justice White's conclusion is perhaps correct, if one assumes that the task of a court of law is to plumb the intent of the particular Congress that enacted a particular provision. That methodology is not mine nor, I think, the one that courts have traditionally followed. It is our task, as I see it, not to enter the minds of the Members of Congress - who need have nothing in mind in order for their votes to be both lawful and effective - but rather to give fair and reasonable meaning to the text of the United States Code, adopted by various Congresses at various times.” IfsThinkingNeedsGivingMindStatesLawOrderJusticeWhiteUnitedUnited StatesMinesParticularMembersFairsTasksVoteCourtAssumingCongressVariousConclusionCodeReasonableAdoptedProvisionMethodology Author:Antonin Scalia
“Historical science is not worse, more restricted, or less capable of achieving firm conclusions because experiment, prediction, and subsumption under invariant laws of nature do not represent its usual working methods. The sciences of history use a different mode of explanation, rooted in the comparative and observational richness in our data. We cannot see a past event directly, but science is usually based on inference, not unvarnished observation (you don't see electrons, gravity, or black holes either).” DifferentUsePastLawBlackAchieveEventsCapableMethodExperimentsHolesConclusionObservationDataFirmExplanationUsualGravityRootedPredictionsLaws Of NatureRichnessBlack HoleElectronsInferencePast Events Author:Stephen Jay Gould
“The millions of laws which exist for the regulation of humanity appear upon investigation to be divided into three principal categories: protection of property, protection of persons, protection of government. And by analyzing each of these three categories, we arrive at the same logical and necessary conclusion: the uselessness and hurtfulness of law.” PersonsGovernmentLawHumanityThreeMillionsPropertyProtectionConclusionLogicalCategoriesDividedRegulationInvestigationPrincipalAnalyzingUselessness Author:Peter Kropotkin
“It is natural to men to judge of things less known, by some similitude they observe, or think they observe, between them and things more familiar or better known. In many cases, we have no better way of judging. And, where the things compared have really a great similitude in their nature, when there is reason to think that they are subject to the same laws, there may be a considerable degree of probability in conclusions drawn from analogy.” ThinkingMenWayMayReasonLawNaturalKnownCasesSubjectsJudgingDegreesFamiliarConclusionProbabilityBetter WaysAnalogies Book:Philosophical works Source: Philosophical works
“In [Aristotle's] formal logic, thought is organized in a manner very different from that of the Platonic dialogue. In this formal logic, thought is indifferent toward its objects. Whether they are mental or physical, whether they pertain to society or to nature, they become subject to the same general laws of organization, calculation, and conclusion - but they do so as fungible signs or symbols, in abstraction from their particular "substance." This general quality (quantitative quality) is the precondition of law and order - in logic as well as in society - the price of universal control.” WellsDifferentLawOrderQualitySubjectsObjectsParticularLogicOrganizationUniversalDialogueConclusionSymbolsSubstanceOrganizedIndifferentFormalAbstractionCalculationsLaw And OrderPlatonic Author:Herbert Marcuse
“TV taste is an aftertaste. Whatever gets on the tube is always a foregone conclusion, a fait accompli. That is, any new ideas or social changes have already been fought for in the real world of the streets, or in the bedroom or even the law courts long before they reach the screen. By the time you see it on prime time, it's usually all over and done with, whatever it was. Television by definition is not avant garde. It is often reactionary and always sentimental.” WorldLongIdeasRealDoneLawSocialStreetsTelevisionTvsTasteCourtDefinitionsScreensConclusionPrimeReal WorldNew IdeasBedroomSentimentalSocial ChangeTubesReactionariesAvant GardePrime TimeLaw Courts Book:Mind Over Media: Essays on Film and Television Source: Mind Over Media: Essays on Film and Television