Balkinization: Professors Give Up One-Half of Life? (More From Holmes)

Professors Give Up One-Half of Life? (More From Holmes)

Brian Tamanaha

While on the subject of Holmes, contemplate this interesting passage about professors:

...I doubt if there is any more exalted form of life than that of a great abstract thinker, wrapt in the successful study of problems to which he devotes himself, for an end which is neither unselfish nor selfish in the common sense of those words, but is simply to feed the deepest hunger and to use the greatest gifts of his soul.

But after all the place for a man who is complete in all his powers is in the fight. The professor, the man of letters, gives up one-half of life that his protected talent may grow and flower in peace. But to make up your mind at your peril upon a living question, for the purposes of action, calls upon your whole nature.

Was that a slap at professors?

Is there something to what he is saying--that we are out of the action, mostly engaged in satisfying our intellectual urges?

Is it obvious that I am trying to avoid more pressing work?

[From "Law in Science and Science in Law," 12 Harv. L. Rev. 443,451-52 (1899)(an Address to the New York State Bar)]

Posted 5:28 PM by Brian Tamanaha [link]

Comments:

So am I.

But I think he Holmes is deeply wrong. A successful abstract thinker is in for the long fight, not the little battles of day to day. Newton had greater influence on human history than Holmes could ever hope to have. Same for Bohr and Einstein.

Wittgenstein, Bertrand Russell and Goedel will reverbate for a millenium.

Law Professors? I don't know. But if Holmes meant more than just the law, he had, as they say, issues.

Who today cares about Machievelli's "active" life in politics? It is his academic work that is remembered, done in the quiet of the country-side in seclusion (house arrest).

# posted by

RandomSequence : 8:44 PM

After Holmes returned from the Civil War, he considered becoming a philosopher, and discussed the matter with Emerson. But he chose, of course, to study law, writing later that law allows one to "plunge so deep in the stream of life ... share its passions, its battles, its despair, its triumphs, both as witness and actor." (Quoted in Liva Baker, The Justice From Beacon Hill, p. 165.)

# posted by

Henry : 9:13 PM

Well, you might be trying to avoid grading some exams....

Holmes was deeply conflicted. He also disliked law practice, which he described as "the greedy watch for clients and practice of shopkeepers' arts, the mannerless conflicts over often sordid interests." [The Profession of Law, in Holmes's Occasional Speeches]. And Holmes agrees with randomsequence's comment, in the famous finale to "The Path of the Law": "To an imagination of any scope the most far-reaching form of power is not money, it is the command of ideas. If you want great examples read Mr. Leslie Stephens' 'History of English Thought in the Eighteenth Century,' and see how a hundred years after his death the abstract speculation of Descartes had become a practical force controlling the conduct of men. Read the works of the great German jurists, and see how much more the world is governed today by Kant than by Bonaparte. We cannot all be Descartes or Kant, be we all want happiness. And happiness, I am sure from having known many successful men, cannot be won simply by being counsel for great corporations and having an income of fifty thousand dollars. An intellect great enough to win the prize needs other food beside success. The remoter and more general aspects of the law are those which give it universal interest. It is through them that you not only become a great master in your calling, but connect your subject with the universe and catch an echo of the infinite, a glimpse of its unfathomable process, a hint of universal law."

# posted by

David Luban : 9:43 PM

the key words in the Holmes quote lie towards the end, "But to make up your mind at your peril upon a living question, for the purposes of action, calls upon your whole nature." This is the classic moment of choice as analyzed in Aristotle's Ethics and discussed by the thinkers who followed that line of reasoning. Of course the life of a "Professor" in an "Academic" institution may give rise to choices, but a life devoted to the pursuit of knowldge as such, "crescat scientia" as the motto of my alma mater suggests, does not aim at the inclusion of such moments. Many scientists prefer the satisfaction of continuing to pursue their research instead of stopping to take the results of their work and trying to use them to influence others' lives. A life devoted to action rather than knowledge does aim at these choices, but usually requires positions to be taken and objectivity to be jettisoned in favor of enthusiasm and drive. In the best possible way, this blog often illustrates these points. David Reed

# posted by

Unknown : 11:57 AM

David Luban,

Well, from your quote I would then assume that Holmes statement at the top was simply self-justifying. When you come to that moment of choice, say between academia and industry, there is a naturally tendency to disparage, somewhat, the other choice. Probably shouldn't take it too seriously.

David,

Ahh, old Aristotle! I have a hard time taking the old philosophers too seriously. They were clever, but working from such a seriously limited base of information and such a constrained cultural view, that I think we make an error to really follow them to closely, other than as an analytical tool for those who did.

Is there really such a different in the moment of a year, and the moment of a century? Physiologically, your heart may race a bit more when the danger of loss is close at hand. But intellectually? The war is the same, the subjectivity is just much wider.

# posted by

RandomSequence : 12:35 PM