THE NATURE OF THE
JUDICIAL PROCESS
Lecture II. The Methods of History, Tradition and Sociology
THE method of philosophy comes in competition, however, with other tendencies which find their outlet in other methods. One of these is the historical method, or the method of evolution. The tendency of a principle to expand itself to the limit of its logic may be counteracted by the tendency to confine itself within the limits of its history. I do not mean that even then the two methods are always in opposition. A classification which treats them as distinct is, doubtless, subject to the reproach that it involves a certain overlapping of the lines and principles of division. Very often, the effect of history is to make the path of logic clear.[1] Growth may be logical whether it is shaped by the principle
- ↑ Cf. Holmes, "The Path of the Law," 10 Harvard L. R. 465.
