Of Words and Deeds: A Reply to My Critics
| Author | Friedrich Kratochwil |
| Published date | 01 January 2016 |
| Date | 01 January 2016 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/0305829815623846 |
| Subject Matter | Forum: The Status of Law in World Society |
Millennium: Journal of
International Studies
2016, Vol. 44(2) 278 –291
© The Author(s) 2016
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DOI: 10.1177/0305829815623846
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1. See Plato, Phaedrus, 276c; see also Plato, The Seventh Letter, 344c: ‘a serious man in dealing
with really serious subjects carefully avoids writing’.
Of Words and Deeds: A Reply
to My Critics
Dr. Friedrich Kratochwil
European University Institute (emer.), Italy
Abstract
In this response, I answer some of the critiques that were raised in the Forum. In particular,
this response clarifies the role of practices and pragmatism, the limits of inter-disciplinarity,
and the authority and assumed foundations of law in a post-foundational time. Even though this
contribution does not attempt to solve these issues once and for all, it provides avenues for
future engagement.
Keywords
law, practices, pragmatism
Introduction
Writing, like talking has its pitfalls. While in conversation we can take things back,
elaborate or clarify, the person who tries to communicate by writing seems to talk into a
void. The words he commits to the paper might just disappear, or if not, they soon take
on a life of their own, as already noted by Plato.1 This fact not only undermines authorial
claims to the monopoly of interpreting one’s own text, it also opens the space for criti-
cism, bringing to the fore inconsistencies, oversights, dubious judgements, or plain
errors. To that extent, any book worth its ‘salt’ – in the sense of the old notion of sapien-
tia, of getting to know something by trying and ‘tasting’ rather than switching on a
Corresponding author:
Dr. Friedrich Kratochwil, European University Institute (emer.), Via Corella 7, I -50062 Dicomano (Fi.),
Italy.
Email: friedrich.kratochwil@eui.eu
623846MIL0010.1177/0305829815623846MillenniumKratochwil
research-article2015
Forum: The Status of Law in World Society
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