Skip to content
Carmelics
TopicsThinkersChangesContributorsLoading account…

    Carmelics

    A reasoning platform. Break down any belief into clear reasons, explore both sides, and weigh the evidence honestly.

    Navigate

    • Topics
    • Search
    • Recent Changes
    • Contribute
    • How It Works
    • Glossary
    • Thinkers
    • Contributors
    • About
    • Statistics
    • Terms
    • Privacy

    Database

    Statements
    —
    Perspectives
    —
    Topics
    —

    Press ? for keyboard shortcuts

    LoyalLoyalJusticeJustice
    Made withinDC&Austin
    Statements
    321,452
    Perspectives
    108,905
    Topics
    42
    Home/Original/inverse
    See Original
    Inverse View

    It is not the case that Hart's separation thesis demonstrates that a complete descriptive jurisprudence can account for legal obligation without importing moral criteria.

    ?Set your confidence on the premises below to see your aggregate.

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
    ?
    • 1.Legal obligation necessarily involves normative force—a reason to act—which cannot be purely factual and requires moral or evaluative grounding.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 2.Hart's own account of why citizens obey law appeals to internal acceptance of rules, a concept that inherently involves evaluative attitudes.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 3.Identifying what counts as 'law' requires implicit judgments about legitimacy and authority that smuggle in normative criteria despite descriptive intentions.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
    ?
    • 1.Legal systems function with internal consistency rules that operate independently of moral content, as demonstrated by morally unjust legal codes.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 2.Descriptive jurisprudence aims to explain law as it is, not as it ought to be; mixing morality conflates explanation with evaluation.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 3.The rule of recognition identifies legal validity through social practice and convention, not through moral truth-conditions.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    Next step

    Based on where you are in your exploration

    Strongest counterpoint
    Explore the most compelling reason on the other side.