Symposium Foreword: David Fischer, the Fox

Abstract

This essay recognizes the seminal scholarship of Professor David Fischer. The piece notes that scholars in modern tort theory are either splitters or lumpers. Referring to Isaiah Berlin’s dichotomy, they are either hedgehogs or foxes. Fischer is a fox (a splitter) in a world of hedgehogs (lumpers). Fischer does the hard analytical work on the interior of the law that uncovers problems and dilemmas for courts as they go about ascribing responsibility for wrongful acts. The piece shows this by reference to two interior tort problems: (1) liability for lost chances, and (2) causation in over-determined cases.