Common sense and legal judgment : community knowledge, political power, and rhetorical practice / Patricia Cochran.
2017
K370 .C63 2017 (Mapit)
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Title
Common sense and legal judgment : community knowledge, political power, and rhetorical practice / Patricia Cochran.
Imprint
Montreal ; Kingston ; London ; Chicago : McGill-Queen's University Press, [2017]
Copyright
©2017.
Description
264 pages ; 24 cm
Formatted Contents Note
Introduction
Common sense : self-evident and inscrutable
Thomas Reid's common sense : accountability for judgment and the boundaries of debate
Antonio Gramsci's common sense : history, power, and our conceptions of the world
Hannah Arendt's common sense : imagining communities and the basis of valid judgment
Conclusion: Common sense for good legal judgment.
Common sense : self-evident and inscrutable
Thomas Reid's common sense : accountability for judgment and the boundaries of debate
Antonio Gramsci's common sense : history, power, and our conceptions of the world
Hannah Arendt's common sense : imagining communities and the basis of valid judgment
Conclusion: Common sense for good legal judgment.
Summary
"What does it mean when a judge in a court of law uses the phrase 'common sense'? Is it a type of evidence or a mode of reasoning? In a world characterized by material and political inequalities, whose common sense should inform the law? [This book] explores this rhetorically powerful phrase, arguing that common sense, when invoked in political and legal discourses without adequate reflection, poses a threat to the quality and legitimacy of legal judgment. Often operating in the service of conservatism, populism, or majoritarianism, common sense can harbour stereotypes, reproduce unjust power relations, and silence marginalized people. Nevertheless, drawing the works of theorists such as Thomas Reid, Antonio Gramsci, and Hannah Arendt into conversation with rulings by the Supreme Court of Canada, [the author] demonstrates that with careful attention, the democratic, egalitarian, and community-sustaining aspects of common sense can be brought to light. A call for critical self-reflection and the close scrutiny of power relationships and social contexts, this book is a direct response to social justice predicaments and their confounding relationships to law. Creative and interdisciplinary, [this book] reinvigorates feminist and anti-poverty understandings of judgment, knowledge, justice, and accountability."-- Provided by publisher.
Bibliography, etc. Note
Includes bibliographical references (pages 235-252) and index.
Location
STA
Call Number
K370 .C63 2017
Language
English
ISBN
0773550887 (hardback)
9780773550889 (hardback)
0773550895 (paperback)
9780773550896 (paperback)
9780773552319
9780773552326
9780773550889 (hardback)
0773550895 (paperback)
9780773550896 (paperback)
9780773552319
9780773552326
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