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| | | Paradoxes of Self-Conception | |
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< | But pose the question and those in this group may become uncomfortable. They will try to provide justifications, some of which sound almost Kantian: the divide between the public and private exercise of reason. Functionally, the justification is this: Of course I know the question and its premises are nonsensical, that this is all just a matter of metaphysical blather disguising deep-seated biases and class interests, but if I say so in my exam answer my professor will not in fact be impressed at my genius but will simply roll her eyes and give me the lowest grade in the class, and that will limit my options when I graduate, which means I won’t be able to do all the great life- and civilization-saving work which I plan to do one day. There is a mercenary logic to this. But it contains the implicit admission that, while they recognize what they are doing is nonsense, they are willing to put up with it for a material benefit, which raises the question: what else will they put up with? What else will they be willing to ignore? The problem is almost theodical. In order to preserve a coherent identity they must sacrifice one of the pillars on which they believed that identity rested. Perhaps, so hobbled, they will return to their blissful un-dogmatic slumber and rest without troubling dreams. | >
> | But pose the question and those in this group may become uncomfortable. They will try to provide justifications, some of which sound almost Kantian: the divide between the public and private exercise of reason. Functionally, the justification is this: Of course I know the question and its premises are nonsensical, that this is all just a matter of metaphysical blather disguising deep-seated biases and class interests, but if I say so in my exam answer my professor will not in fact be impressed at my genius but will simply roll her eyes and give me the lowest grade in the class, and that will limit my options when I graduate, which means I won’t be able to do all the great life- and civilization-saving work which I plan to do one day. There is a mercenary logic to this.
No, it's bullshit based on a false dichotomy. Of course I am not impressed by a student who offers callow externalism only (Marxisé, econodwarfish, or otherwise). But someone who can work the internalist angles, demonstrating knowledge of the moves, while also creatively marshalling other perspectives in order to achieve by synthesis a clear personal voice is worthy of the highest praise. In the traditional law school exam context, that means writing one kind of response to the issue-spotter, and something completely different for the policy question, with some form of piquancy in whatever capstone comes third. (Hence the presence of a poetry question in the final position on every Property exam I ever gave.) That's the purpose of my prefatory walk in the cemetery before sitting down to write any exam: to plan a strategy for my voice, to interrupt responsive thinking and instead let the music come.
This is another version, as you see, of the crap dichotomy between doing good and doing well that everywhere infects the bureaucrats' approach to law school, and which "the student" (your preferred dissociative way of referring to a living you) ingests at every "mandatory" meeting you are fool enough to attend.
But it contains the implicit admission that, while they recognize what they are doing is nonsense, they are willing to put up with it for a material benefit, which raises the question: what else will they put up with? What else will they be willing to ignore? The problem is almost theodical. In order to preserve a coherent identity they must sacrifice one of the pillars on which they believed that identity rested.
But "coherent identity" is a myth, certainty is illusion, and repose is not destiny of man. There is no sacrifice once we have learned that we do not need to sacrifice ourselves to be our selves. Learn this now, emotionally as well as intellectually, and there are no limits.
Perhaps, so hobbled, they will return to their blissful un-dogmatic slumber and rest without troubling dreams. | | | There is, of course, a second paradox: consider the student who recognizes the first paradox, and thinks himself above it, while behaving in more-or-less exactly the same manner as those who haven’t achieved the same cognizance. Both are, in a sense, losers: aware at least nominally of the artifice but unable to rise beyond it, and therefore consigned to do what they do not want to do, what they think is beneath them, to eke out what meager rewards the system will offer. | | | Is this perhaps overly reductive? Does limiting the function of law in this way reduce the legal debates which consume so much intellectual effort to the modern equivalent of postulating how many angels can fit on the head of a pin? Certainly not. Legal scholarship and debate are core mechanics of the game; without them the effective terms of the game—those combinations of words which can sentence a human being to death or redeem his sentence—would never be sufficiently codified. What legal scholars, law students, and practicing lawyers must do is recognize that they are acting within such a circumscribed space, a state of play, and chew on this fact, for what it means to them and how it will inform their attitude toward their work. The things that matter, too, are elsewhere. | |
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I think the finest route to improvement is for the text to stop holding its author at arms' length. I understand the value of dissociation at a time like this, but it stands in the way of the learning you want to do, in my opinion. Let's see what happens if you write in the first rather than the third person, so that inner conflict is no longer "paradox," and becomes instead a sign of human being. I know full well why this is difficult, but as I have tried to suggest above and before, this is where the big game is to hunt.
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