The Paradox of Self-Amendment: A Study of Logic, Law, Omnipotence, and Change

by Peter Suber

The first full-length study of self-reference and paradox in law, this book will intrigue and instruct anyone interested in law, logic, philosophy, or political theory. History shows that self-amendment - for example, the use of a constitution's amending clause to amend itself - is commonplace; legal analysis shows it to be lawful, even if (as some logicians have alleged) it is self-contradictory; and philosophical analysis shows it to be foundational for legality. The lawfulness of self-amendment, therefore, sheds important light on legal reasoning and rationality, and shows that we no longer need accept the immutability of any level of law.

Genres: Philosophy

Hardcover

First published March 1, 1990

About the author

Peter Suber, a leading theorist of open access and a prominent voice in the OA movement, is Director of the Harvard Office for Scholarly Communication, Director of the Harvard Open Access Project, Faculty Fellow at the Berkman Center, Senior Researcher at SPARC, and Research Professor of Philosophy at Earlham College. He is the author of Open Access (MIT Press), named by Choice as an Outstanding Academic Title for 2013.