In“Begreppet viljeförklaring på privaträttens område”(originally published in Theoria 1935) - “The Conception of a Declaration of Intention in the Sphere of Private Law” (translated1953) - Hägerström investigated the concept of declaration of intention, and he did so true to his nature as a philosopher - qualifying he qualified his role and approach to law and jurisprudence as that of an outsider - and questioned whether a philosopher had anything substantial to offer jurisprudence. In a manner most typical of himself, in order to isolate and identify the problem, he described the state of the art from an historical point of view, describing the development of the concept of declaration of intention. In general,Hägerström’s investigations attempt to explain a contemporary phenomenon with reference to its historical origins, especially where such origins are of a philosophical nature.2 And since Hägerström’s critique of jurisprudence and legal theory does not enter into existence from a void it is thus incompatible with the matter as well as the spirit of his work to conduct any study of his scientific output without adopting a similar approach. A perusal of the titles in Hägerström’s archive at the a ca l l f o r s c i e n t i f i c p u r i t y 292 Legal science: “Quid Saulus inter Prophetas?”1 part v, chapter 1 1 häge r ström’s pe r spect ive : Philosophical and Historical, External and Genetic 1 Hägerström, “Begreppet viljeförklaring,” p. 99; “Declaration of Intention,” p. 299. 2 Cf.Wedberg, Historia 3, pp. 387-392.
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