Joseph Raz 1939 – 2022
Joseph Raz was an Israeli-British legal and moral philosopher and one of the leading legal positivists of his generation. Trained at Hebrew University and Oxford, he held the chair of philosophy of law at Balliol College, Oxford, and a long professorship at Columbia. His Authority of Law and Practical Reason and Norms developed an original positivist account of legal authority centered on the service conception of authority and the exclusionary character of legal reasons. The Morality of Freedom set out a sophisticated perfectionist liberalism in which autonomy, supported by a plurality of valuable options, is the primary good of political life. He shaped a generation of jurisprudence around the world.
Key facts
- Nationality
- Israeli-British
- Era
- Contemporary
- Movements
- Analytic
Selected quotes
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Attributed to Joseph Raz:
“The function of legitimate authority is to help us conform to right reason.”
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Attributed to Joseph Raz:
“An autonomous life is a life in which one is part-author of one's own existence.”
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Attributed to Joseph Raz:
“Reasons exclude as well as require.”
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Attributed to Joseph Raz:
“Liberalism without perfectionism leaves the goods of life unprotected.”
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Attributed to Joseph Raz:
“Rule by law is one thing; the rule of law is another.”