The Foundations Of Legal Positivism

The foundations of legal positivism include three dimensions:its historical origin,the construction of "human image" which justify legal positivism,and the methodological characters of legal positivism.The epistemology of Hume and Kant classified the positivity that legal positivism emphasizes.It is the positivity of knowledge.Thus,the positivity of legal positivism is different from the positivity of society and history that sociological school of law and historical school of law.Thomas Hobbes explained internal connections of sovereignty and positive law.Hence,sovereignty became the central concept in legal positivism.On the foundations of its historical origin,legal positivists constructed different "human images" by adopting different methods from different positions.From Bentham and Austin's utilized person to Kelsen's Symbolized person and Hart's un-utilized person,"human images" constructed by legal positivism are changing continuously under the ideal of person.Based on the double foundations of history and "human image",the methodological character of legal positivism could embody and defend the foundations of legal positivism best.This methodological character presupposed fact-value dichotomy and law as a closed self-sufficient body.It also includes different methods that adopted by legal positivists.The positivists takes different methods to defend their position of fact-value dichotomy,such as Bentham and Austin's methods of ideal language and utilitarian generalization,Kelsen's methods of "pure" and transcendent argument and Hart's methods of philosophy of daily language and descriptive sociology.Because of different methods, the theories of legal positivists have deep difference.There are many differences in the foundations and links of norms.