Joseph Raz

Joseph Raz (2009).

Joseph Raz (* 1939 in Palestine ) is an Israeli philosopher who works primarily on political , ethical and legal philosophical problems. He is one of the most prominent representatives of legal positivism today .

biography

Joseph Raz studied law at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem , where he graduated in 1963 with the degree of Magister Juris. He met HLA Hart at a conference in Israel . Hart later wrote that Raz had pointed out a contradiction in his argument during that conference that he had previously escaped. Hart then encouraged Joseph Raz to continue his studies at Oxford.

Raz followed Hart's advice and obtained the title of DPhil at Balliol College in 1967 without - as is normally required - previously acquiring the title of Bachelor and Master of Philosophy. Joseph Raz then spent most of his academic career as a professor of legal philosophy at Oxford University . At the same time he was a professor of law at Columbia University's Law School . In 1992 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences . For 2018 he was awarded the Tang Prize for Rule of Law .

Raz's most prominent students include the legal philosopher John Gardner , successor to Ronald Dworkin at Oxford University, and the philosopher Leslie Green . In 2006 Joseph Raz retired.

plant

As a student of HLA Hart, Joseph Raz made a significant contribution to the continuation of his argument in defense of legal positivism even after the death of his mentor. His publication of a posthumous second edition of HLA Hart's main work "The Concept of Law" (title of the German translation: "The Concept of Law") in 1994 contributed to this. This second edition contained an afterword HLA Hart, edited by Joseph Raz, in which he argued with the criticism of other philosophers - in particular Ronald Dworkin - of his right-wing positivist theses.

Hart and Joseph Raz represent different forms of legal positivism . Raz is a representative of exclusive positivism and defends the thesis that there is no necessary connection between law and morality. He goes beyond the positions of Hart, Hans Kelsen and Jules Coleman . As inclusive positivists, those authors represent the so-called separability thesis. Like Raz, they claim that there is no necessary connection between law and morality, but - unlike Raz - they admit that a connection between law and morality that is dependent on the respective positivistic legal system is possible.

For Raz, the task of the law is to provide clarity in a pluralistic society. This presupposes that law determines what law is authoritatively. If the concept and validity of the law were made dependent on moral flawlessness, then the law would lose the necessary authority that is necessary for a functioning pluralistic society.

Since the mid-1970s, Joseph Raz has mainly dealt with political philosophy and general theory of argument in addition to legal philosophy in the narrower sense . As part of his political philosophy, Raz takes the position of " perfectionist " liberalism, which he developed in his main political-philosophical work The Morality of Freedom (1986). In his moral-philosophical works he defends a pluralism of values. His core thesis in this regard is the assertion that different value systems are philosophically fundamentally equivalent because they are epistemologically incommensurable with one another .

literature

Works by Joseph Raz (selection)

• The Authority of Law , 1979
• The Concept of a Legal System , Oxford 1970 (second edition 1980)
• The Morality of Freedom , Oxford 1986
• Practical Reason and Norms , Princeton 1975 (second edition 1990), title of the German translation: Practical Reasons and Norms , Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp 2006
• Ethics in the Public Domain , Oxford 1994
• Engaging Reason , Oxford 1999
• Value, Respect and Attachment , Cambridge (et al.) 2001
• The Practice of Value , Oxford (et al.) 2003

Secondary literature

• Lukas H. Meyer, u. a., (Ed.): Rights, Culture and the Law: Themes from the Legal and Political Philosophy of Joseph Raz , Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2003.
• R. Jay Wallace, et al. a., (Ed.): Reason and Value: Themes from the Moral Philosophy of Joseph Raz , Clarendon, Oxford, 2004.

Web links

• Literature by and about Joseph Raz in the catalog of the German National Library
• Oxford University homepage
• Columbia University homepage
• personal homepage