Practices and principles
Subtitle: approaches to ethical and legal judgment
By: Mark Tunick.
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: 1998
Place of publication: Princeton, N.J
Language: eng
Number of pages: 242
Subjects: Kant, Immanuel, 1724-1804.; Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich, 1770-1831.; Sociological jurisprudence.; Law and ethics.
Description: In Practices and Principles, Mark Tunick takes up the debate between universalists and relativists, and, in political philosophy, between communitarians and liberals, each of which has roots in an earlier debate between Kant and Hegel.

Tunick focuses on three case studies: promises, contract law, and the Fourth Amendment issue of privacy. In his analysis, he rejects both uncritical deference to social practice and draconian adherence to principles when making legal and ethical judgments. He argues that we do not always need to choose between abstract principles and social practices.

Sometimes we appeal to both; sometimes we need to appeal to shared social norms; and sometimes, where there is no ethical community, we can only appeal to principles. Ultimately, he rejects simplified arguments that force us to choose between either practices or principles, universalism or relativism, and liberalism or communitarianism.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [223]-233) and indexes.