ed by divine interventions, while Greek law was essentially a set of rules that, in comparison, were merely morally binding.The difference thus refers to the malleability of the rules themselves, or as Hägerström writes: Hägerström’s words in this respect indicate what according to him constitutes legal science - namely, the analysis and investigation of certain dogmas of faith, conducted irrespectively of the intrinsic reality and objective truth value of such dogmas.4 This concerns the analysis and investigation of the dogmas of law and the corresponding dogmatic attitudes towards those same dogmas. The analogy between magic and law is that just as the Roman priesthood drew up an elaborate system of rules based upon the dogma that the magical actions performed by them actually could create law, real rights and obligations, the legal scientist dogmatically interprets, analyzes, investigates, and systematizes a body of rules (whose intrinsic truth value for the moment is uncritically postulated and accepted by the jurist) in order for the a ca l l f o r s c i e n t i f i c p u r i t y 563 3 Ibid., p. 80.The idea that Roman Law is founded upon a magical substratum of ideas has been convincingly disputed by Geoffrey MacCormack, according to whom the assumptions of Hägerströmet al. are invalid, namely, that primitive cultures alike share similarly superstitious, symbolistic, and formalistic world views, that primitive cultures share a magical world view, which in the case of the Romans flows over into law. See MacCormack,“Formalism, Symbolism and Magic in Early Roman Law,” pp. 456460;“Hägerström’s Magical Interpretation of Roman Law,” p. 160. However, Hägerström dismisses Roman religious beliefs out of hand as being primitive. Hägerström, Magistratische Ius, p. 80 n. 4 Cf. Hägerström, Obligationsbegriff 2, p. 399 - Hägerström’s discussion on Roman animism and mysticism, that is, their magical beliefs, and the effects that such beliefs had upon the actual doings of the Romans. “Darum waren es auch nicht die Griechen, sondern die Römer, die ein so gewaltiges Rechtsgebäude aufführten, das mit seiner vorbildlichen Festigkeit unter beständiger Berücksichtungen der Bedürfnisse des sozialen Lebens seinen Schatten noch über die moderne Rechtswissenschaft wirft. Aber was dem fraglichen Gebäude seine Konsistenz gab, waren gerade die magischen Regeln.Was die Religion betrifft, ist es ja offenbar, dass die griechische, weniger magischen betonte Religiosität den Keim einer vertieften Geistesreligion enthielt [sic], die das individuelle Streben nach innerem Frieden und Seligkeit befriedigen konnte, einer Religion wie sie im älteren Christen vorlag.”3
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