Originalism, the school of constitutional interpretation currently modish among conservative lawyers and judges, is not so much an idea as a legal-industrial complex divided into three parts—the academic, the jurisprudential, and the political. In its first part, originalism is an academic pursuit, one that a large number of law scholars have embraced with gusto. A […]
I think you’re missing the broader context of the analogy as it pertains to current arguments around constitutional law though, that was just one of the last paragraphs of the piece and the broader context is quite important.
I would also push back on this:
No part of “imagining perfection” is found in the scientific method.
To the contrary, when devising experiments and hypotheses, we very much do try to imagine perfect ways to describe and test our world, ones that will work with full consistency and accuracy. It may not be regularly thought of as a realistically attainable goal in the near term, but it’s certainly a feature, an idealized goal. I would argue this fundamentally differentiates it from any of the building trades.
Some fair points.
I think you’re missing the broader context of the analogy as it pertains to current arguments around constitutional law though, that was just one of the last paragraphs of the piece and the broader context is quite important.
I would also push back on this:
To the contrary, when devising experiments and hypotheses, we very much do try to imagine perfect ways to describe and test our world, ones that will work with full consistency and accuracy. It may not be regularly thought of as a realistically attainable goal in the near term, but it’s certainly a feature, an idealized goal. I would argue this fundamentally differentiates it from any of the building trades.