title: Jurisprudence: Theory and Context
author:  Brian Bix 
description: Brian Bix is Frederick W. Thomas Professor for the Interdisciplinary Study of Law and Language at University of Minnesota Law School. He also holds a joint appointment with the Department of Philosophy.
zlib_text: THE YALE LAW JOURNAL
  JULES L. COLEMAN
  The Architecture of Jurisprudence
  ABSTRACT. Contemporary jurisprudence has been dominated by an unhelpful interest in
  taxonomy. A conventional wisdom has grown up around these projects. This Article, the first in
  a three-part series, identifies two dominant claims of this conventional wisdom in
  jurisprudence-one substantive, the other methodological - and argues that both are deeply
  mistaken and must be discarded. Rather than construct a new taxonomy founded on different
  claims, this Article casts aside the taxonomical projects of jurisprudence in favor of a project of
  reconceptualizing jurisprudence in terms of a set of basic problems. In order to identify the
  fundamental problems of jurisprudence and to make progress on their resolution, an
  architectural framework for the field is required. Freed from the burdens of the conventional
  wisdom, the Article turns to putting in place a solid foundation on which a new architecture of
  jurisprudence can b