edge of them. Even if there existed a truly supernatural reality, it would be impossible to prove its existence and hence impossible to have any knowledge of it. Furthermore, any actual system of reality that purported to be supernatural by nature would be just another aspect of spatio-temporal reality, for reality is one and indivisible.All in all, natural law “exists” as a system of ideal law, but not as a system of real, enforceable law. Logically speaking, the idea of the supernatural is an unsubstantiated speculation, a paralogism,a figment of the imagination,but never a proper judgment of reality. In addition, when it comes to the actual transcendence of the metaphysical categories, it is concluded that the metaphysical categories cannot be more transcendent than the subject that is thinking them. Due to the inherent subjectivity of the principles of natural law, there exists no consensus of what natural law really prescribes.At least one can contend that there is less consensus of what natural law contains than there is with regard to the content of positive law, which is there for everyone to see. In addition, it must be added that natural law, despite its self-proclaimed objectivity owing to its autonomy in relation to real, positive law, serves a definite political purpose. Practically speaking the theory of natural law fights an uphill battle, for even if natural law were to be real, it would still have to prove itself to be more expedient, more politically pleasing, more socially suitable, and more in correspondence with positive law than positive law itself for natural law to be prima facie accepted as being an objectively binding source of law. Hägerström’s main critique against legal positivism is his examination of the will-theory of law, which makes up a specific target for his legal theory, regardless of whether he is analyzing natural lawor legal positivism. In either case, the judgment is the same: any idea of objective law as a direct outflow of will is metaphysical, and hence unscientific. However, the basic idea of legal positivism, namely that the only accessible law is positive, and p a r t v i i i 646
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