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Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preface, 2003 -- Introduction -- Part One: General Theoretical and Empirical Analysis -- 1 Setting the Stage -- 2 The Market for Public Intellectuals -- 3 Care and Insight -- 4 Prediction and Influence -- 5 More Public, Less Intellectual -- Part Two: Genre Studies -- 6 The Literary Critic as Public Intellectual -- 7 Political Satire -- 8 The Jeremiah School -- 9 The Public Philosopher -- 10 The Public Intellectual and the Law -- Conclusion: Improving the Market -- Epilogue, 2003 -- Acknowledgments -- Index

Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- Introduction -- PART ONE The History of Sexuality -- CHAPTER ONE Theoretical Sexology -- CHAPTER TWO Autres Temps~ Autres Moeurs -- CHAPTER THREE Sexuality and Law -- PART TWO A Theory of Sexuality -- CHAPTER FOUR The Biology of Sex -- CHAPTER FIVE Sex and Rationality -- CHAPTER SIX The History of Sexuality from the Perspective ofEconomics -- CHAPTER SEVEN Optimal Regulation of Sexuality -- CHAPTER EIGHT Moral Theories of Sexuality -- PART THREE The Regulation of Sexuality -- CHAPTER NINE Marriage and the Channeling of Sex -- CHAPTER TEN The Control of Pregnancy -- CHAPTER ELEVEN Homosexuality: The Policy Questions -- CHAPTER TWELVE The Sexual Revolution in the Courts -- CHAPTER THIRTEEN Erotic Art, Pornography, and Nudity -- CHAPTER FOURTEEN Coercive Sex -- CHAPTER FIFTEEN Separating Reproduction from Sex -- Conclusion -- Acknowledgments -- Index

Ambitious legal thinkers have become mesmerized by moral philosophy, believing that great figures in the philosophical tradition hold the keys to understanding and improving law and justice and even to resolving the most contentious issues of constitutional law. They are wrong, contends Richard Posner in this book. Posner characterizes the current preoccupation with moral and constitutional theory as the latest form of legal mystification—an evasion of the real need of American law, which is for a greater understanding of the social, economic, and political facts out of which great legal controversies arise. In pursuit of that understanding, Posner advocates a rebuilding of the law on the pragmatic basis of open-minded and systematic empirical inquiry and the rejection of cant and nostalgia—the true professionalism foreseen by Oliver Wendell Holmes a century ago. A bracing book that pulls no punches and leaves no pieties unpunctured or sacred cows unkicked, The Problematics of Moral and Legal Theory offers a sweeping tour of the current scene in legal studies—and a hopeful prospect for its future

Catastrophic risks are much greater than is commonly appreciated. Collision with an asteroid, runaway global warming, voraciously replicating nanomachines, a pandemic of gene-spliced smallpox launched by bioterrorists, and a world-ending accident in a high-energy particle accelerator, are among the possible extinction events that are sufficiently likely to warrant careful study. How should we respond to events that, for a variety of psychological and cultural reasons, we find it hard to wrap our minds around? Posner argues that realism about science and scientists, innovative applications of cost-benefit analysis, a scientifically literate legal profession, unprecedented international cooperation, and a pragmatic attitude toward civil liberties are among the keys to coping effectively with the catastrophic risks.

Intro -- Contents -- Introduction to the Hoover Classics Edition -- Prefatory Note to the Original Edition -- 1. The Problem -- 2. The "Agency within an Agency" Solution -- 3. A Better Solution -- Conclusion -- Appendix: Mission Statement of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service1 -- Index.

Intro -- Contents -- Dramatis Personae -- Chronology -- Introduction -- 1. The President's Conduct -- 2. Prosecution and Defense -- 3. The History, Scope, and Form of Impeachment -- 4. Morality, Private and Public -- 5. Should President Clinton Have Been Impeached, and If Impeached Convicted? -- 6. The Kulturkampf -- 7. Lessons for the Future -- 8. The Balance Sheet -- Acknowledgments -- Index.

Richard Posner argues for a conception of the liberal state based on pragmatic theories of government. He views the actions of elected officials as guided by interests rather than by reason and the decisions of judges by discretion rather than by rules. He emphasizes the institutional and material, rather than moral and deliberative, factors in democratic decision making. Posner argues that democracy is best viewed as a competition for power by means of regular elections. Citizens should not be expected to play a significant role in making complex public policy regarding, say, taxes or missile defense