Philosophical lexicon: so Jack Balkin and Larry Solum have a gigantic, jurisprudential argument going back and forth. In the midst of it all, Tom Runnacles has this noteworthy comment:

The almighty battle between Professors Balkin and Solum, over the merits of the 'neo-formalist' view of judicial decision-making, proceeds apace. In his latest post, Larry is momentarily dismayed when the argument takes a turn he didn't quite anticipate:

I thought I had Balkin, but now, at the very end, he pulls a Dworkin on me. What I am supposed to do now. I could Raz Balkin, but there is no way to Raz someone in a blog. It takes way too long.

Indeed, but that's only the half of it. The real problem is that when a Razzing has been successfully carried through, the affected party may well not notice what's happened to him for some time afterwards; in fact, even then it may take him a considerable while to determine the nature of his injuries.

Folks, let's hope this fight stays clean. They're both taking some tremendous hits out there, but one can certainly say that each is showing a lot of Hart, and that this one ain't Finnis-ed yet.

If you've never seen Dworkin or Raz in action, then all of this will be something of a mystery. But that's where the Philosophical Lexicon comes in. Except that Solum and Runnacles aren't helping out the uninitiated by using the "standard" definitions. According the Lexicon, "to dwork" means: "To drawl through a well prepared talk, making it appear effortless and extemporaneous. "I bin dworkin on de lecture circuit" - old American folk song." Looks like Solum is using an alternative, unsanctioned definition. And, unfortunately, the Lexicon seems to be missing altogether a definition for "Raz". In the "Preface to the Eight Edition," Dennett extends his "apologies to all the illustrious members of the profession who deserve to be included but have so far failed to inspire a suitably pungent definition." I think with some refinement, Solum could supply the requisite one-liner. Then maybe we can move on to Hart and Finnis--since jurisprudes seem to be rather under-represented in the Philosophical Lexicon. For what it's worth, my favorite entry is:

buber, v. To struggle in a morass of one's own making. "After I defined the self as a relation that relates to itself relatingly, I bubered around for three pages." Hence buber, n. one who bubers. "When my mistake was pointed out to me, I felt like a complete buber."

There are certainly times when blogging feels like bubering. Hence my hiatus. Here's to getting back into the saddle.