Jamesian Philosophy Refreshed

The Legal History Blog has alerted its readers to the existence of a journal on    Buddhism, Law & Society . In its inaugural issue, a professor at the University of Bern delves into the law in 18th century Mongolia.  Mongolia was part of the vast Qing Empire at this time, the Manchu based empire that would last until the early 20th century and the rise of the Republic of China. But Mongolia was given relative autonomy, so it makes sense to speak and wrote of its legal system as a separate entity.  The abstract of the article in question reads thus:  "For 18th-century Mongols living under Qing rule, the imperial state was not the only source of law. Among the rules acknowledged to have binding character were Buddhist legal traditions, customary legal practices as well as rights and duties emanating from dependencies and prerogatives. Yet, the existence of these different legal practices and codes raises many questions about the specific way these di...

HARPER's has recently excerpted the following from a new translation of Herodotus's THE HISTORIES. I submit it with no further intrusion. Just suppose that someone proposed to the entirety of mankind that a selection of the very best practices be made from the sum of human custom: each group of people, after carefully sifting through the customs of other peoples, would surely choose its own. Everyone believes his own customs to be far and away the best. Indeed, there is a huge amount of evidence to support the conclusion that this attitude to one's own native customs is universal. Take, for example, this story from the reign of Darius. He called together some Greeks who were present  and asked them how much money they would wish to be paid to devour the corpses of their fathers -- to which the Greeks replied that no amount of money would suffice for that. Next, Darius summoned some Indians called Callantians, who do eat their parents, and asked them in the presence of t...