The purpose of the first part of this study is to illuminate and describe the development of certain ideas characteristic of the scientific output of Axel Hägerström (1868-1939), in particular his jurisprudential production.This choice of perspective immediately gives rise to issues of how the passage of time in relation to the sources should be dealt with. How should the historical dimension of Hägerström’s philosophical development be dealt with, in contrast to the purely philosophical dimension of those sources and his works?This problem expresses itself through the fact that alterations over time in the use and meaning of concepts “In reality, philosophy and the special sciences are dependent upon each other. Empirical research, without philosophy, lacks a comprehensive picture both over itself and over that soil on which it works. But philosophy, if torn asunder from all that is empirical, withers away, because its principles apply precisely to the empirical world. Hence, all disputes concerning principles are in reality grotesque, and depend upon the fact that the adversaries in question are unclear about their own limitations.”1 a ca l l f o r s c i e n t i f i c p u r i t y 23 Introduction part 1, chapter 1 1 hi storical or phi losophical method and approach? 1 Hägerström, Botanisten och filosofen: om kunskapsfilosofiens nödvändighet (1910), p. 66.My translation. Swedish:“I själfva verket äro filosofi och fackvetenskap hänvisade till hvarandra. Empirien utan filosofi saknar totalvyer öfver sig själf och den mark, hvarpå den arbetar. Men filosofien, lössliten från all empiri, förtvinar, därför att dess principer ha sin användning just på erfarenhetens värld. Därför äro alla principiella klammerier i själfva verket barocka och beroende på, att de stridande icke ha klart för sig sin egen begränsning.”
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