original_query: What is Holmes' interpretation of law and what does he consider as the determining factor for what counts as law?
query: What is Oliver Wendell Holmes' interpretation of law and what does he consider as the determining factor for what counts as law?
answer: Holmes viewed law as a set of generalizations derived from judicial decisions in similar cases.  He believed that the determining factor for what counts as law is what judges actually do in cases, enforced by the state, rather than abstract theories or moral principles.  He famously stated that "[t]he prophecies of what the courts will do in fact, and nothing more pretentious, are what I mean by the law."