ABSTRACT
The Importance of Ideals, is a clarion call from a group of leading Dutch legal scholars and legal and political theorists to take ideals seriously in legal studies and political philosophy. Sociologically-oriented study of law is itself guided by values and ideals. The chapter examines systematically and empirically the social contexts in which ultimate values and ideals gain their meaning – including those that inform its own scholarly practices. Hence the need for an endlessly reflexive approach which finds values embedded in practices, and recognises that provisional interpretations of experience are central to any claims about 'truth'. The chapter begins to sound a little like pragmatism – at least, enough so to provide a lead into discussing The Importance of Ideals which, in part, is strongly informed by pragmatist views of the treatment of ideals in law. Sociological inquiries can clarify the contexts in which values are interpreted and given significance.
