The Concept of Level Organization of Scientific Knowledge as a Tool for Systematization of Conceptual and Categorical Apparatus of Jurisprudence

Abstract

Legal concepts (categories) cannot exist separately from each other, since they are present within the framework of a certain system that strives for orderliness. To systematize the conceptual and categorical apparatus various approaches are used, which, although they do not exclude each other, but weakly correlate with each other. The existence of «once and for all given» systems of ordering the conceptual and categorical apparatus of jurisprudence does not meet the needs of legal science and practice. The conceptual and categorical matrix of jurisprudence should be based on flexible approaches that take into account the peculiarities of the level of scientific knowledge used, the contextuality of the analyzed phenomenon, etc. To solve such problems, the concept of the level organization of scientific knowledge is optimal, according to which in every developed science there are several levels of scientific knowledge: empirical, theoretical and metatheoretical. The specification of the structural and substantive elements used at these levels in relation to jurisprudence should become one of the tasks of the theory of law. The level-based organization of scientific cognition makes it possible to systematize the conceptual and categorical apparatus of jurisprudence, taking into account the specifics of its use at different levels of cognitive activity, is optimal for studying the mechanism of interrelation of legal categories. The tiered approach to the cognition of the legal reality phenomena must be supplemented with elements on which inter-level relationships are carried out — the «boundaries of meanings» between the empirical and theoretical levels, as well as between the theoretical and metatheoretical levels. The disciplinary matrix of legal science has a complex multilevel structure, within which legal categories change their functionality depending on the level of scientific knowledge used. At the empirical level, the conceptual and categorical apparatus is applied, at the theoretical level it is developed, verified and updated using the metatheoretical level. The system of the conceptual and categorical apparatus of jurisprudence includes, among other things, elements that give an idea of the links and connections in the logical structure of an object (cognizable) phenomenon, reflecting its primary basis and essential dominants — legal metaphenomena. Their allocation is based on the use of the concept of the level organization of scientific knowledge.