The tapestry of reason
Subtitle: an inquiry into the nature of coherence and its role in legal argument
By: Amalia Amaya
Series: European Academy of Legal Theory series; European Academy of Legal Theory series
Publisher: Hart Publishing
Published: 2015
Place of publication: Oxford
Language: eng
Number of pages: 628
ISBN-13: 9781849460705
Subjects: Methodology; Philosophy; Law
Description: "In recent years coherence theories of law and adjudication have been extremely influential in legal scholarship. These theories significantly advance the case for coherentism in law. Nonetheless, in the field of coherence theory in law a number of problems remain. This ambitious new work makes the first concerted attempt to develop a coherence-based theory of legal reasoning, and in so doing addresses, or at least mitigates these problems. The book is organised in three parts. The first part provides a critical analysis of the main coherentist approaches to both normative and factual reasoning in law. The second part investigates coherence theory in a number of fields that are relevant to law: coherence theories of epistemic justification, coherentist approaches to belief revision and theory-choice, coherence theories of practical and moral reasoning, and coherence-based approaches to discourse interpretation. Taking this interdisciplinary analysis as a starting point, the third part develops a coherence-based model of legal reasoning. While this model builds upon the standard theory of legal reasoning, it also leads to rethinking some of the basic assumptions that characterise this theory, and suggests some lines along which it may be further developed. Thus, ultimately, the book not only improves upon the current state of coherence theory in law, but also contributes to the larger debate about how to articulate a theory of legal reasoning that results in better decision-making."--Bloomsbury Publishing.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 559-604) and index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction; title: Normative coherence : justification and interpretation --; title: Coherence, evidence and proof --; title: Coherence, knowledge and justification --; title: Explanatory coherentism --; title: Coherence and belief dynamics --; title: Is coherence truth-conducive? --; title: Practical coherence --; title: Beyond reflective equilibrium --; title: Discourse coherence --; title: A coherence theory of legal reasoning.