Legal Positivism Social Source Thesis and Metaphysical Grounding: Employing Metaphysical Grounding based on Metaphysical Laws

The core of legal positivism is the so-called social source thesis, which claims that legal facts are determined only by social facts. I examine an interpretation of this thesis that uses metaphysical grounding as an exact relation between legal facts and social facts. I argue that the current interpretation of the social source thesis in terms of metaphysical grounding has significant drawbacks that stem from it being based on the view that metaphysical grounding is a primitive relation. For that reason, the current interpretation is unintelligible and poses problems with explaining the normativity of legal facts. I present two other views on metaphysical grounding: that it holds due to essences of facts and that it holds due to metaphysical laws. I apply the notion that metaphysical grounding holds due to metaphysical laws and argue that in the case of grounding of legal facts in social facts, this metaphysical law is constituted by instrumental rationality. It provides intelligibility to this grounding relation, is able to explain the normative character of legal facts, and is compatible with the general form of explanation.

THE SEMANTICS OF THE REWRITING SCENES IN V. SHAROV'S NOVELS "TRACT IN TRACE" AND "THE RAISING OF LAZARUS"

The research presents typology and semantics of the rewriting plots in V. Sharov's novels «Tract in trace» (1991) and «The Raising of Lazarus» (2002) in two aspects: receptive and historical, or historiosophical. In V. Sharov’s prose, the relation of characters to the text and the word together with the rewriting scenes show the specificity of the national mentality, according to which texts testify the metaphysical laws of historical reality, and the belief that the power of the word can transform reality. The teleological understanding of history was based on the understanding of the text as an instrument of influence on the material world, as a force of history. The article presents three types of rewriting plot in V. Sharov's novels «Tract in trace» and «The Raising of Lazarus». Firstly, correct (calligraphic) rewriting as an attainment to the metaphysical meaning of sacral texts (mythologization and demythologization). The semantics of this plot in V. Sharov’s novels emphasizes the impossibility of reproducing or preserving sacred meanings and transforming imperfect historical reality. Secondly, rewriting can be correction of other people's ideas and one’s own attempt to change life with the help of the text. It determines the conditionality of understanding the text, rewriting, reworking the tasks of the present. In particular, «The Raising of Lazarus» explains Russian people’s sufferings in the XX century. The second type can denote the illusory character of such attempts to change the reality by texts, as it is reality that corrects texts. Thirdly, rewriting, or interpreting texts can denote a deeper understanding of reality (hermeneutic meaning): it signifies a dialogue between the pretext meaning and the meaning perceived by the «rewriter».