Series Editors’ Preface

In films, in novels, in dreams, there are alternatives to realism. But in legal philosophy, we just have to face up to what is really going on. In its historical reality as an -ism (i.e., a tendency or inclination that gets adhered to, more or less, by particular actors), legal realism has started from that uncontestable premise. And then it has gone very much further, through strands of work by many thinkers, to develop a theoretical account of what is real. Brian Leiter has led the way in that pursuit. His previous works have developed a framework in the tradition of Nietzsche and Marx, Ayer and Quine, and, of course, the realist lawyers—especially Karl Llewellyn and Richard Posner. Leiter’s disagreements with those other realists are themselves contributions to the tradition. Now, in From a Realist Point of View, Leiter works out the implications across the wide terrain of legal, moral, and political philosophy and revisits the starting points. This book develops the realist impulse through many instances of Leiter’s intense argumentative verve.