Background
Dorsey, Gray Lankford was born on February 16, 1918 in Hamilton, Missouri, United States. Son of Claude Purdue and Mary Alice (Lankford) Dorsey.
( This second in a definitive eight-volume work by Gray ...)
This second in a definitive eight-volume work by Gray L. Dorsey explores the organization and regulation of society in traditional India in relation to prevailing beliefs about reality, knowing, and desiring. Dorsey's central concept of jurisculture sees human societies as organized and regulated by cultural processes. Human beings can cooperate only when they understand in accordance with shared meanings, desire in accordance with shared values, intend in accordance with shared purposes, and guide and limit actions in accordance with shared principles. These shared meanings, values, purposes and principles are evolved from fundamental beliefs. This second volume examines the roots of jurisculture in India, in the fundamental beliefs arising from the Vedas, Jainism, Buddhism, Carvakian materialism, the great epic poems (the Ramayana and the Mahabharata), and the six orthodox systems of Hindu philosophy. It traces the influence of these beliefs in the direction and control of the cooperative activities of society and also in individual actions .during the three millenia from 1500 B.C. to 1500 A.D., with some echoes in the modern period. Dorsey explains why India, unlike Greece or Rome, did not experience a social revolution when the basis of fundamental beliefs changed from speculative faith to rational knowledge. Because ultimate reality came to be understood as being, instead of activity, the highest good became withdrawing from society into communion with the inner self. This good could be attained only by Individual action. Society, therefore, was not as important as in the West. Indians lived in two realms of existence: the realm of soul development, and the realm of moral cause and effect. Philosophers of law, political scientists interested in the development of normative theory, and general readers who have thought of Indian culture as mystical and esoteric will find this volume of interest.
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( In this first of a definitive seven-volume work to be p...)
In this first of a definitive seven-volume work to be published by Transaction, by Gray L. Dorsey, a major figure in the philosophy and history of law, the ancient roots of the culture of Western jurisprudence are treated. This volume explores the formation and regulation of societies in early Greece and classical Rome in relation to prevailing beliefs about reality, knowing, and desiring. And while part of a series, the volume clearly stands on its own. The central question addressed in this fundamental reexamination of the organization and regulation of antiquity is how, in a world in which major physical and human events are defined as in control of the gods, and with few mortals said to possess such powers, did the Greeks and Romans distribute decision-making powers to ensure survival and wealth? The methods by which these issues are addressed is called "Jurisculture" to distinguish it from the analytical procedures of either philosophy or empirical social research. Jurisculture identifies sets of meanings that derive from premises about reality and human nature, and beliefs considered basic in organizing and controlling that reality. This work aims at nothing less than the discovery of new interrelations between prevailing ideas of antiquity and their codification and implementation in legal institutions and principles. This volume is addressed to those people who are concerned with the wise and effective use of public discourse to arrive at prudent national and foreign policies. Professor Dorsey discusses philosophical and social ideas, but always in the context of their implications for the problems of organizing and regulating human cooperation. The emergence of the philosophy of law has made possible the rapid development of normative theory in the social sciences. This volume provides a powerful historical and analytical tool for this broad-sweeping development.
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Dorsey, Gray Lankford was born on February 16, 1918 in Hamilton, Missouri, United States. Son of Claude Purdue and Mary Alice (Lankford) Dorsey.
Student, Baker University, 1938. Bachelor of Arts in Journalism, University Kansas, 1941. Juris Doctor, Yale, 1948.
Doctor of Juridical Science, Yale, 1950.
Editor, public, Cameron (Missouri) Sun, 1940-1942; member of faculty, Washington University, St. Louis, 1951-1997; Charles Nagel professor jurisprudence and international law, Washington University, St. Louis, 1962-1988; Charles Nagel professor emeritus jurisprudence and international law, Washington University, St. Louis, 1988-1997. Visiting professor National Taiwan U., 1952-1953. Organized World Congress on Equality and Freedom, St. Louis, 1975.
( In this first of a definitive seven-volume work to be p...)
( This second in a definitive eight-volume work by Gray ...)
Lieutenant United States Coast Guard Reserve, 1942-1946. Major United States Army Reserve, 1956-1962. Member International Association Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy (president 1975-1979, honorary president American section 1989-1997), Mexican Society Philosophy (honorary), University Carlos Cossio de Argentina Foundation (honorary).
Married Jeanne DeVall, January 1, 1942. 1 child, Deborah DeVall.