Гуманитарный вектор (Nov 2021)

The Distinction Between Law qnd Morality in Legal Positivism: Socio-Philosophical Dimension

  • Olga V. Smirnova,
  • Alexey A. Kononov

DOI
https://doi.org/10.21209/1996-7853-2021-16-5-59-68
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 16, no. 5
pp. 59 – 68

Abstract

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The article deals with the main conceptions of the relationship between law and morality in legal positivism. The research relevance is caused by legal positivism which is influential and dynamically developing in both domestic and foreign science. The purpose of the study is to consider the features that describe the positivist approach to the differentiation between legal and moral regulation in the context of the dialectical interaction of individual and social principles in society. It presupposes the establishment of both general and special in legal positivism’s views regarding the interaction of these social regulators. Special attention is paid to the consideration of not only positive aspects of the proposed concepts but also the difficulty that arise within legal positivism. The research methodology is based on the dialectical method, the method of analysis, comparative and historical methods. These methods allow us to analyze in a historical perspective the development of views on the relationship between law and morality in legal positivism, to analyze specific features in the visions of the most influential philosophers of this doctrine, to identify common ideas that unite the philosophers considered. As a result of the conducted research, it is argued that legal positivism is characterized by the correlation of law and morality as sovereign socio-normative systems that closely interact in the structure of society, but do not have the necessary connection that mutually determines their content. The sovereign nature of legal and moral regulation implies the search for models of their interaction. It is important to determine the demarcation line of the spheres and limits of each social regulator. As a result, it is concluded that there are three possible models of this interaction, and the consequences of their implementation in society. In particular, it is determined that law and morality within the structure of society can be either indifferent to each other or have identical content realized through both regulation forms or be in relation to a contradiction adducing to a social conflict.

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