The Development of the Philosophies of Science and Law: Parallelisms, Reciproceties, Perspectives

Abstract

The paper presents an inquiry into analogies, reciprocities and influences between the two domains of philosophy – philosophy of science (modern epistemology) and philosophy of law (jurisprudence) – as well as an analysis of the development of jurisprudence through the prism of approaches and criteria that come from modern epistemology. Starting with the general estimation of the relation between developments of epistemology and jurisprudence, the research focuses on highlighting of the incoherencies of the different schools or conceptions of jurisprudence in the 20th century. The basic exponent of the incoherency is the fluctuation between two main strategies in the articulation of the foundations of law – empiricist/naturalistic/inductive and logocentric/rationalistic/deductive – found also in the philosophy of science. The escape route from this fundamental undecidable of jurisprudence is sought at the intersection of the two strategies, where the necessity of the theory of anthropogenesis as an inherent part of jurisprudence becomes evident. This escape route also necessitates the outer disciplinary and inner theoretical openness of the academic discipline of the philosophy of law.