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4 Clinical L. Rev. 163 (1997-1998)

handle is hein.journals/clinic4 and id is 169 raw text is: FUZZY THINKING: A BORROWED PARADIGM FOR CRISPER LAWYERING DAVID F. CHAVKIN* In the film I.Q.,' Albert Einstein (played by Walter Matthau) turns matchmaker to fix up his intellectually gifted, but insecure niece, Catherine Boyd (played by Meg Ryan), with creative, but unschooled auto mechanic, Ed Walters (played by Tim Robbins). In an early scene in their courtship, the following exchange takes place between Meg Ryan and Tim Robbins as they stand near each other in a restaurant: Ed: I think your uncle wants us to dance. Catherine: Oh, now, don't be irrelevant, Ed. You can't get from there to here. Ed: Why not? Catherine: Now don't tell me that a famous and brilliant scientist such as yourself doesn't know about Zeno's paradox.2 * Associate Professor of Law, Washington College of Law, American University. This article was conceived on a bareboat charter in the Caribbean, a wonderful place to escape the traditional constraints of bivalent thinking. I am especially appreciative of the indul- gence extended and suggestions provided by my clinic colleagues and sailing companions, Professors Ann Shalleck and Elliott Milstein of American University. An early version of this article was presented to my former colleagues at Catholic University at a faculty workshop. I am grateful to these faculty members for their com- ments and insights that were reflected in later drafts. A later version was presented at a Mid-Atlantic Clinical Theory and Practice Workshop. That experience was invaluable in sharpening the focus of the piece. Valuable contributions were also made by my research assistants - Kristin Knuutila, James Stallings, Katie Gibbons, and Stacey Feldman. Finally, a debt must be acknowledged to my wife and daughter. No project has been a more con- stant presence in our lives or a more frequent subtext for our discussions. 1 I.Q. (Paramount Pictures 1994). 2 Zeno's Paradox is one of a number of problems that have haunted crisp or biva- lent thinking for thousands of years. These problems are most commonly referred to as paradoxes and have been the subject of ongoing examination from philosophers and math- ematicians. See generally S.J. SAINSBURY, PARADOXES (1988). Among the most famous paradoxes are the series of paradoxes related to time and motion attributed to Zeno the Eleatic. One of these paradoxes is the paradox described by Catherine in I.Q. However, Zeno posited a number of paradoxes of this type. As Ber- trand Russell explained, Zeno belonged to the Eleatic school, whose object was to prove that there could be no such thing as change. The natural view to take of the world is that there are things which change; for example, there is an arrow which is now here, now there. By bisection of this view, philosophers have developed two paradoxes. The Eleatics said that there were things but no changes; Heraclitus and Bergson said there were changes but no things. The Eleatics said there was an arrow, but no flight; Heraclitus and Bergson said there was a flight but no arrow.

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