Philosophical and Legal Heritage of V.S. Nersesyants

Abstract

The article analyzes the legal views of one of the most interesting and original philosophers of law of the last quarter of the twentieth century - the beginning of the XXI century, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences V.S. Nersesyants. The origins of his legal ideas are in ancient philosophy and German idealistic philosophy. Therefore, the comparison of his legal views with the ideas of the Hegelian philosophy of law, taking into account both dissertations of V.S. Nersesyants, is quite traditional for connoisseurs of the theory of law of our contemporary. However, as the experience of a more detailed and in-depth analysis shows, interesting points of similarity of his ideas are also connected with other representatives of the German intellectual and philosophical culture of thinking about law. It is the understanding of the nature of the successive and new aspects in the system of legal views of V.S. Nersesyants that can serve as the basis for the development of his legal views in modern topical and prospective studies. The scientific novelty of the conducted research of V.S. Nersesyants's philosophical and legal heritage consists in some significant clarifications of the nature of the ideas expressed by him, clarifying their connection with the ideas of not only Hegelian philosophy, but also the teachings of I. Kant, I. Fichte, G. Mehmel, as well as the later ideas of the neo-Kantian lawyer R. Stammler. At the same time, the comparison of the legal views of V.S. Nersesyants and the interpretation of law in G. Mehmel's "Pure Doctrine of Law" allows us to present the theory of law of V.S. Nersesyants as an original version of this doctrine. The article also points to the inexplicability of the concept of justice in the philosophy of law of V.S. Nersesyants, as well as promising studies of social theory as a prerequisite for the socio-practical doctrine of civilization.