absolute duties and accompanying rights is metaphysics, to be exact the idea of super-sensible realities emanating from the anthropomorphous human beliefs found in religion.36 The facts intended to prove the innate validity of natural law and human legal institutions derived from natural law are by no means facts, but fictions, postulates, dogmas, and reifications spuriously elevated to the status facts.37 Or, more precisely, what can be described as being natural law’s reliance on unscientific principles and premisses. Hägerström makes use of the teachings of Ferdinand Lasalle (1825-1864) and Karl Marx (1818-1883) to illustrate this contention: To a critical observer of natural law, what hinders acceptance of natural law theory is the fact that natural law when analyzed with reference to factual reality, shows itself to be contradictory. This originates in the claims of natural law to have absolute validity and applicability to human affairs while simultaneously blatantly disregarding social realities, which entails that natural law in fact can only retain relative validity and applicability to human affairs,39 and the normative priority of natural law is thus less a matter of philosophical and logical necessity than a matter of social expediency. In such case, not even divine intervention, a ca l l f o r s c i e n t i f i c p u r i t y 303 “In comparison [with Lasalle], Marx’s disposition is considerably more scientific. But then again, he does not employ a supernatural principle as the supreme basis of explanation, but applies a purely natural factor, which itself is a mere element in the natural context and in natural interaction with other factors, namely the material demands of interacting humans, that is, their desire to produce the direct necessities of life.”38 36 Ibid., pp. 53-55 and 63-64. 37 Ibid., pp. 54-57, 63-64, 136-137, 181-183, 186, and 256. 38 Ibid., pp. 257-258. My translation. Swedish:“I jämförelse härmed [dvs. med Lassalle] är Marx betydligt mera vetenskaplig till hela sin läggning. Men så använder han icke heller en övernaturlig princip som högsta förklaringsgrund, utan en rent naturlig faktor, som själv är blott ett led i natursammanhanget och står i naturlig växelverkan med andra faktorer, nämligen de samverkande människornas materiella begärande, deras begär att producera det för det omedelbara livet nödiga.” 39 Ibid., p. 181.
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