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   Book Info

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A Life of H. L. A. Hart: The Nightmare and the Noble Dream  
Author: Nicola Lacey
ISBN: 0199274975
Format: Handover
Publish Date: June, 2005
 
     
     
   Book Review

Book Description
H.L.A. Hart was the pre-eminent legal philosopher of the twentieth century. As a scholar he single-handedly reinvented the philosophy of law and revolutionized our understanding of law as a social institution. Hart's approach to legal philosophy was at once disarmingly simple and breathtakingly ambitious, combining the insights of the Utilitarian tradition and the new linguistic philosophy of J.L. Austin and Ludwig Wittgenstein. He sought to elucidate a concept of law that would be of relevance to all forms of law, wherever or whenever they arose. This book is both an intellectual and a psychological biography, following his life from modest origins as the son of Jewish tailor parents in Yorkshire to worldwide fame as the most influential English-speaking legal theorist of the post-War era. It traces his successive metamorphoses; from Yorkshire schoolboy to Oxford scholar, successful barrister, intelligence officer, philosopher, and, finally, Professor of Jurisprudence at Oxford. Nicola Lacey draws upon Hart's previously unpublished diaries and letters to reveal a complex interior life. Outwardly successful, Hart was in fact tormented by doubts about his intellectual abilities, his sexual identity and his capacity to form close relationships. Her biography also sheds fascinating light on the origins of his ideas, and assesses his overall contribution to the philosophy of law. Above all, it is a chronicle of a life which made an impact far greater than many of us realize.




A Life of H. L. A. Hart: The Nightmare and the Noble Dream

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"Herbert Lionel Adolphus Hart was born in Yorkshire in 1907 to second-generation Jewish immigrants. Having won a scholarship to Oxford University, he later became the most famous legal philosopher of the twentieth century." "From 1932-40 Hart practised as a barrister in London. He was pronounced physically unfit for military service in 1940, and recruited by MI5, where he worked until 1945. Whilst at the Bar he continued to study philosophy and at MI5 his interest was further stimulated by his philosopher colleagues in MI6, Stuart Hampshire and Gilbert Ryle. After the war, Hart returned to Oxford to take up a Philosophy Fellowship, and later the Professorship of Jurisprudence." "H.L.A. Hart single-handedly reinvented the philosophy of law and influenced the nation's thinking on the legalization of abortion and homosexuality, and on the abolition of capital punishment." Nicola Lacey draws on Hart's previously unpublished diaries and letters to reveal a complex inner life. Outwardly succesful, Hart was tormented by doubts about his intellectual abilities, his sexual identity, and his capacity to form close relationships. Her biography also sheds light on the origins of his ideas, and assesses his overall contribution. Above all, it chronicles a life which had a depth and impact far greater than many of us realize.

     



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