Fuller and Godel: Prophets Against the Evils of Positivism: How the Natural Law is Necessary to Provide Legal Meaning and Consistency

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dc.contributor.advisorKierstead, Shelley Margot
dc.creatorGaron, Henry James
dc.date.accessioned2015-08-28T15:01:03Z
dc.date.available2015-08-28T15:01:03Z
dc.date.copyright2013-11-05
dc.date.issued2015-08-28
dc.date.updated2015-08-28T15:01:03Z
dc.degree.disciplineLaw
dc.degree.levelMaster's
dc.degree.nameLLM - Master of Laws
dc.description.abstractGödel showed that formal systems which discuss natural numbers cannot be complete or prove their own consistency. Incompleteness in this sense is limited to formal systems, and so is not applicable to law by it own terms. Looking to the philosophy behind the Incompleteness Theorem, Gödel intended to show that positivism was a bankrupt world-view, and this resonates strongly with Lon Fuller. Fuller is analogous to Gödel in his condemnation of the positivist philosophy because he showed that a system of rules, by itself, was not capable of rendering judgments. A legal system is dependent upon an external morality, but a close inspection reveals that Fuller’s own natural law view was positivistic in its denial of substantive natural law. A legal system consistent with Gödel’s philosophy would seek justice in an objective and non-arbitrary sense, and would rely on a natural law system akin to that described by Aquinas.
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10315/29914
dc.language.isoen
dc.rightsAuthor owns copyright, except where explicitly noted. Please contact the author directly with licensing requests.
dc.subjectLaw
dc.subjectLogic
dc.subjectPhilosophy
dc.subject.keywordsGödel
dc.subject.keywordsIncompleteness Theorem
dc.subject.keywordsLegal philosophy
dc.subject.keywordsNatural law
dc.subject.keywordsPositivism
dc.subject.keywordsFuller
dc.subject.keywordsHart
dc.subject.keywordsHart-Fuller debate
dc.subject.keywordsFormal logic
dc.subject.keywordsFormal systems
dc.subject.keywordsPhilosophical logic
dc.subject.keywordsPenrose
dc.subject.keywordsConsistency
dc.subject.keywordsCompleteness
dc.subject.keywordsPlatonism
dc.subject.keywordsAquinas
dc.subject.keywordsVagueness
dc.subject.keywordsFormalism
dc.subject.keywordsNaturalist fallacy
dc.subject.keywordsTelos
dc.subject.keywordsInalienable rights
dc.subject.keywordsPractical reason
dc.subject.keywordsManderson
dc.subject.keywordsAugustine
dc.subject.keywordsPolarity
dc.subject.keywordsMorality
dc.subject.keywordsRelativism
dc.titleFuller and Godel: Prophets Against the Evils of Positivism: How the Natural Law is Necessary to Provide Legal Meaning and Consistency
dc.typeElectronic Thesis or Dissertationen_US

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