1-17-08 - Thursday

The biological layer of a theory of social action for lawyers Lawyer’s MIND should have rich associative memory regarding the matters for which they’re being paid. The right brag for a litigator is “able to learn a new subject quickly.” →you want to become able to hear enough to make an association that makes a bell ring. →Because an argument/essay is a constructed entity, you should be able to find a quotation with reference to the structure in your mind. →Litigation support technology—full-text search—is still way inferior to a well-stocked lawyer’s mind.

What impedes good memory? 1. sleep deprivation and 2. stress. But you must learn to form good memories under sleep deprivation, because you’re going to law firms. What you do affects your body, and your brain is no exception. 3. “Vegging out” = “time spent forgetting what you read 45 minutes ago—–the neurological process antecedent to losing memories.” Could the professor please define the boundary line between vegging out, and not vegging out that's also not working? Prof: The overstimulated mind needs rest and relaxation. But COMMERCIAL TV is a social [something]: it induces a state of mind that facilitates selling to you, which is "vegging out." That a by-product of vegging out is poorer memory is not their problem. Moglen suggests transcendental meditation.

Holmes - The Path of the Law

• Intro to 19th C. legal realism
• knowledge of the law requires looking at it as a bad man would
• focus on the practical consequences (what the law does, not what it says)
• the limiting principle of legal realism (how much extra-textual knowledge one should have) is where the public force will be applied

2 fallacies:

1) confounding of morality & law

• contract law - formalism (offer & acceptance) v. realism (damages)
• separate moral stock from legal talk
• isolate the language of the law

2) the notion that the only force at work in the development of law is logic

• Logic results from the human need to comprehend our environment
• we impose logic on the structure of the universe
• logic is a human frailty
• The language of judicial decisions is that of logic
• Holmes uses it as term of derogation in his opinions
• Any proposition can have a logical form
• To say that legal consequences occur as deduction from axioms is wrong

• The sound of the new century: "But certainty is generally illusion, and repose is not the destiny of man."
• Creativity emerges from focus

---

How do I edit without overwriting FeliciaGilbert? 's credit at the bottom? Is it wrong to edit the document by clicking "edit"? -andrew And how do I make a single line break? -andrew -- AndrewGradman - 17 Jan 2008

I'm not sure if this is a good place for it, but I think it would be good if we had a space to talk about the different topics brought up in class and post links to other info, etc. Perhaps we need just one running page of comments instead of attaching them to class notes?

In any case, here's a question: Does watching TLC and the Discovery channel count as vegging out?

-- KateVershov - 18 Jan 2008

As a side bar - it would be awesome if we could have a discussion board that was anonymous. I think people are afraid of saying something that the professor will not like. Otherwise, the responses elicited are likely to be urbane expositions for the professor's eye, rather than genuine engagement.

-- KateVershov - 18 Jan 2008

With regards to vegging out, I was wondering what Eben thought about film studies/active viewing. As a film studies major in college, I spent most of my time trying to "actively" watch films in order to unpack how they were constructed and how they were designed to affect the viewer. Is the memory-harming "vegging out" we discussed a necessary effect of the medium, or is it possible to engage with television and film in such a way as to make it an intellectually stimulating experience?

-- DanielButrymowicz - 18 Jan 2008

Andrew, I am not sure about the credit issue. To add a line break you can try using

 <BR> 

if you find you cannot just hit enter.

Kate, unless you create a new account and use another IP for it (or use another site to host the board), what you post could likely still be tied back to you. In a class of opinionated law students, I'm willing to bet that we can manage plenty of engagement and even some controversy with our names showing. That said, it is hardly my decision to make.

-- DanBryan - 18 Jan 2008