Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2010
Abstract
Scientific discoveries about Pluto and the rest of the universe led scientists to question Pluto’s status and ultimately to strip Pluto of its standing among planets. Neil deGrasse Tyson’s The Pluto Files masterfully weaves together the empirical, conceptual, and cultural questions surrounding Pluto’s demotion. The problem, for scientists and spectators alike, was this: there was no scientific definition of planet. This review systematizes the Pluto puzzle presented in the book and reveals its relevance for law. The questions presented by The Pluto Files – how man relates to the world, how man understands its conceptual categories, and how man should create distinctions along a continuum – are as relevant for the legal theorizing on Earth as they are for scientists’ understandings of space.
Keywords
Astronomy, science, legal philosophy, metaphysics, realism, nominalism, categories, definitions
Publication Title
Michigan Law Review
Repository Citation
Ferzan, Kimberly Kessler, "A Planet by Any Other Name . . ." (2010). All Faculty Scholarship. 2333.
https://scholarship.law.upenn.edu/faculty_scholarship/2333
Included in
Law and Philosophy Commons, Metaphysics Commons, Philosophy of Science Commons, Public Law and Legal Theory Commons, The Sun and the Solar System Commons
Publication Citation
108 Mich. L. Rev. 1011 (2010)