Kenneth Himma’s metaphysical conceptualism as inclusive legal positivism

Abstract

This article is an introduction to a very original legal theory developed by a contemporary American legal scholar Kenneth Einar Himma. His theory can be conditionally called as Metaphysical Conceptualism, this fully corresponds to both his methodological approach (conceptual analysis and metaphysics of the properties of legal concepts) and the claims he defends. The analysis proposed by Himma made a great theoretical contribution to the discussion of the intersection of morality and law and brought the discussion between inclusive and exclusive legal positivism to a new qualitative level. And although his theory is not without flaws, it is certainly of serious scientific interest for understanding the current state of discussions about law and morality.

Keywords

• inclusive positivism
• exclusive positivism
• conceptual analysis
• metaphysics
• morality
• law
• himma