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From: franka@mmintl.UUCP (Frank Adams)
Newsgroups: net.philosophy
Subject: Re: Fundamentalist Materialism
Message-ID: <581@mmintl.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 9-Aug-85 17:42:07 EDT
Article-I.D.: mmintl.581
Posted: Fri Aug  9 17:42:07 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 12-Aug-85 06:28:43 EDT
References: <861@sphinx.UChicago.UUCP> <1288@pyuxd.UUCP> <891@sphinx.UChicago.UUCP> <723@cadovax.UUCP> <939@sphinx.UChicago.UUCP>
Reply-To: franka@mmintl.UUCP (Frank Adams)
Organization: Multimate International, E. Hartford, CT
Lines: 27
Summary: The legal system is an observable


In article <939@sphinx.UChicago.UUCP> beth@sphinx.UChicago.UUCP
 (Beth Christy) writes:
>
>OK.  Stand in front of 3 police officers and 30 witnesses, and shoot and
>kill 5 civilians.  Chances are, within an hour you'll be physically unable
>to move more than 3 yards in any direction (cause you'll most likely be in
>jail).  The legal system is real, and I don't think it's wise to truly
>believe it isn't.  Furthermore, of the infinite number of things you could
>choose to do in front of 3 police officers and 30 witnesses, there are a
>number of things you could do that would get you thrown in jail, and a lot
>more that wouldn't.  Can you scientifically determine which physical
>actions will result in incarceration and which things won't?  The legal
>system sure *seems* beyond science.


Yes.  I can (naively) try a variety of things and find out which get me
arrested.  With more sophistication, I can read law books.  The point is
that the precise nature of the legal system is an observable fact, in the
same way that the location of Minneapolis is an observable fact.  Part
of the scientific method is making observations.

Now, the precise laws in effect are not scientifically interesting,
precisely *because* they can be directly observed.  How laws are chosen
(not the mechanics, but the underlying reasons) and how they affect
societies are interesting, and are the subject of legitimate scientific
inquiry.  (I am not expressing an opinion on the quality of any of the
work which has actually been done on such questions.)