Abstract

Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall trilogy are iconic pieces of literature, but also represent a hugely insightful commentary on the law. Her protagonist, Thomas Cromwell, is the archetype of a philosophical legal pragmatist: willing to use the law and its language to achieve his ends, but regarding adherence to any principled or abstract account of the law as misleading and even dangerous. With striking parallels to the pragmatist philosophy of William James, Richard Rorty, Richard Posner and others, Mantel's Cromwell illustrates both the promise of legal pragmatism—its ability to get results without false compunction about means—but also its dangers: that one may pick the wrong prince, or make flawed or base calculations on how to act. The Wolf Hall trilogy shows this in a manner far more clear and far more vivid than any purely philosophical accounts, and capture something deep about the theory and practice of law. As such, their commentary on the law, authority and governance deserves our close attention.

摘要

希拉里·曼特尔的狼厅三部曲是标志性的文学作品，但也代表了对法律的深刻见解。她的主人公托马斯·克伦威尔（Thomas Cromwell）是哲学法律实用主义者的原型：愿意使用法律及其语言来实现自己的目的，但认为坚持任何原则性或抽象的法律解释都是误导性的，甚至是危险的。曼特尔的克伦威尔与威廉·詹姆斯、理查德·罗蒂、理查德·波斯纳等人的实用主义哲学有着惊人的相似之处，它既说明了法律实用主义的承诺——它能够在不对手段产生错误内疚的情况下获得结果——也说明了它的危险：人们可能会选择错误的王子，或对如何行动做出有缺陷或基础的计算。狼厅三部曲比任何纯粹的哲学叙述都更清晰、更生动地展示了这一点，并捕捉到了法律理论和实践的深刻内容。因此，他们对法律、权威和治理的评论值得我们密切关注。