Workshop: 'An Introduction to the Logocratic Method' by Prof. Dr. Scott Brewer

15. Mai 2022, von Internetredaktion

From Monday, June 20 until Thursday, June 23 2022 Prof. Dr. Scott Brewer (Harvard Law School) will teach a workshop on the 'Logocratic Method' at the University of Hamburg Faculty of Law.

The course is addressed to doctoral students of the University of Hamburg Faculty of Law. To register for the course please write an e-mail to michael.preisig"AT"uni-hamburg.de.

Course description: This course is a detailed introduction to the Logocratic Method. Legal analysis is dominated by legal arguments, and the assessment of any legal claim requires the assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of those arguments. The Logocratic Method is a systematic method for assessing the strengths and weaknesses of arguments. It uses an explanatory framework of virtue and vice (in a non-moral conception of these concepts) to offer a precise account of two of the kinds of strength and weakness of arguments that are of great concern to arguers, including, but not limited to, legal arguers such as judges, lawyers, theorists, and students of law. While the principal examples we use in the course are drawn from American Law, judges, lawyers, and students from around the world – United States, Asia, Central and South America, widely around Europe – have found the Logocratic Method deeply illuminating for legal analysis in whatever is their home jurisdiction, whether common law or civil law. Although our principal focus in this course is on legal arguments, the Logocratic Method also provides an account of the nature of arguments in any domain, including arguments in politics (it provides an analysis of so-called "post-truth" and conspiracy theories), religion, morality, and the formal and empirical sciences, and we will consider brief applications of Logocratic theory to these domains of argument as well.

For more information, cf. the course entry in Stine