Legal Thinking As A Factor Of Legitimate Personality Behavior

Abstract

The paper studies legal thinking as a phenomenon that regulates personality behavior in the society. Theories of social ideas of Moskovici and social thinking of Abulkhanova-Slavskaya are used as a methodological basis. It was established that legal thinking manifests itself in its object, i.e. legal reality. In turn, legal thinking acts as a cognitive mechanism of legal awareness, by means of which the subject establishes his legal status. The study revealed that the distinctive feature of the legal thinking of an individual is its sociality. The system of ideological, political and institutional values introduced from outside directly influences its formation. The important social implication of legal thinking is that it forms an axiological component of legal consciousness in an individual thus ensuring the truth of legal judgements and conclusions. Consequently, legal thinking is directly dependent on the legal consciousness of an individual, in fact being the main mechanism of its axiological component. In the process of social and historical development, different paradigms and standards of legal thinking are formed. Three main types of professional legal thinking can be identified: thinking about rule (law), thinking about decision, thinking about order and form. They develop not only in the context of a legal family or a national legal system, but also in various branches of law, as well as within a scientific school of law. Thus, the style of legal thinking defines the boundaries of legal reflection, the limit of awareness of the foundations of political and legal world.