Because the purpose of this investigation is to uncover and analyze the principles of Hägerström’s analysis of law and his theories of law and legal science, the emphasis of this investigation of Hägerström’s philosophy of science and of law is primarily philosophical.The presentation of Hägerström’s ideas will therefore be more systematic in outline than historical.2 Furthermore, the philosophical approach is of greater explanatory value than a historical approach when explaining the intellectual impact of Hägerström’s condemnation over the subject of legal science. However, this does not mean that the historical development of Hägerström’s philosophy, or the historical setting of his ideas, will be disregarded. In addition, the emphasis of a philosophical perspective helps to illustrate the purpose of this investigation, namely an analysis of the foundations of legal science, especially dogmatic jurisprudence. Thus, the historical approach is only emphasized when it becomes essential to an understanding and explanation of the chronology of events leading to the final form of Hägerström’s philosophy and ensuing critique of science. Here, an immediate theoretical stance is taken, namely that law is only directly accessible by means of observation of facts - that is positively. Throughout this investigation, the terms positivism and legal positivismwill be used to designate any legal theory taking the positive sources of law alone as the material point of departure for legal argumentation. In this analysis of Hägerström’s ideas and work secondary sources, commentaries and literature have been disregarded in favor of primary sources.The reason for this choice is methodological, for a ca l l f o r s c i e n t i f i c p u r i t y 29 1. 2 choice of approach and method 2 Cf. Jes Bjarup, in his doctoral thesis Reason, Emotion and the Law(1982) decided neither to choose a method nor to explain why he should choose a certain method. Accordingly, his account of Hägerström’s philosophy is distinguished by an unstructured approach towards the subject matter as well as an eclectic approach towards facts. 1. 3 choice of mate rial
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