Culture, Law and War: On the Feasibility of the Project of «Eternal Peace», or on Some Methodological Issues of the Philosophy of Law

Abstract

The aim of the article is to continue the study of law as a cultural phenomenon, in this case as an introduction to the problems of the XXVIII World Congress on the Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy “Peace Based on Human Rights”. It is offered as an opportunity for additional substantiation of the idea of eternal peace (I. Kant) from the position of a culturological approach as one of the methodological tools of the philosophy of law. The concept developed by the author makes it possible to appeal to the ideal structures of consciousness not only in a purely epistemological aspect and phenomenological context, but also based on the ontological foundations of moral and legal culture. Thus, it becomes obvious and necessary to distinguish between anthropological and culturological approaches to substantiate the removal of the very concept of war beyond the boundaries of culture into the sphere of the unacceptable, what qualifies as a crime. Such a process of human development as a cultural development is natural in the sense of acquiring proper human qualities – it is overcoming the animal component of man (Aristotle and others). The philosophical and ideological foundations of this direction of development are the concepts that have received legal formalization primarily in the concept of human rights. The cultural form of overcoming the animal (in the cultural sense – criminal) principle in a person is play, which has found embodiment in various forms of agonal interaction, primarily in sports, as well as in art. Law as a formulation of the rules of cultural interaction becomes a necessary condition for survival, and the extension of this (culturological) principle to humanity (as a common destiny) makes the anthropological approach, in the form in which it is interpreted in modern (domestic) jurisprudence, limited and partial not only in a logical, but also in a humanitarian sense. The necessity of understanding the logical correlation of the concepts of “privilege” and “social parasitism” with the concept of “war” is shown. The transfer of “war” (regardless of interpretations and definitions) beyond the boundaries of culture (or truly human relationships) becomes necessary, as well as understanding the role of law in ensuring such a state of humanity.