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Соловьёвские исследования. Выпуск 3(27) 2010
УДК 130.2:34 ББК 67.00(2)
E. PRIBYTKOVA
Рурский университет Бохума, Германия
LAW AS A MINIMUM OF GOOD: THE CROSS-POINT OF ALL-UNITY AND UNIVERSALISM1
Рассматриваются этико-правовые аспекты идей всеединства и универсализма и их взаимосвязь с учением о праве как «минимуме Добра». Особое внимание при этом обращается на следующие проблемы: 1) правовая концепция всеединства, разработанная В. Соловьёвым и его последователями; 2) трактовка права как «минимума Добра», ставшая искомой формулой морального оправдания права в теории всеединства; 3) интерпретация теории этического минимума в различных христианских традициях и ее значение для понимания того, в чем сходны и различны право, нравственность и религия в современном обществе; 4) «минимум Добра» как универсальная формула примирения в плюралистическом обществе и точка пересечения идей всеединства и универсализма.
In my paper I examine ethical-legal aspects of the ideas of all-unity and universalism and their interrelation with the doctrine of law as a "minimum of Good'! I will focus on several questions: 1) the legal conception of all-unity developed by Vl. Solov'ev and his followers; 2) the definition of law as a minimum of Good, which was the favored formula of the moral justification of law in the all-unity doctrine; 3) the interpretation of the theory of the ethical minimum in different Christian traditions and its meaning for an understanding of how law, morality, and religion intersect and diverge in contemporary societies; 4) "minimum of Good" as a universal formula of consensus in the pluralistic society and the crossing point of the ideas of all-unity and universalism.
Ключевые слова: этико-правовые аспекты идей всеединства и универсализма, право как «минимум Добра», интерпретация теории этического минимума в различных христианских традициях, право, нравственность и религия в современном обществе.
Key words: ethical-legal aspects of the ideas of all-unity and universalism, law as a «minimum of Good», interpretation of the theory of the ethical minimum in different Christian traditions, law, morality and religion in contemporary societies.
1. The first attempt to create an integral conception of law in Russia belongs to a philosopher and religious thinker, Vl. Solov'ev. The legal conception of all-unity he developed is a moral-religious interpretation of the integrative approach, which seeks to elaborate an integral (tselostnoe) knowledge of law and to show its correlation with the order of the absolute ends of a person. The legal theory of all-unity considers law as a polyphonic phenomenon. From Vl. Solov'ev's point of view, legal ontology is not exhausted by rational and empirical elements of law. Legal philosophy as a system should first of all provide an insight into a spiritual idea (moral-religious foundations) of law. The epistemological aspect of the conception of all-unity was the theory of "integral knowledge" which synthesizes religious, philosophical, and scientific methods of knowledge of law. In his works "The Justification of the Good" (1897) and "Law and Morality" (1897) Solov'ev regarded law as a triune phenomenon constituted by psychological determinants, rational meaning, and a spiritual idea.
The integrative approach in jurisprudence was developed by outstanding legal philosophers at the turn of the twentieth century. I. Il'in (1883-1954) supposed that
the true definition of law unites the rational meaning of law and its moral idea ("the basic nature of law','its "spiritual foundations")2. According to the synthetic conception of A Jadenko (1877-1934), the essence of law is determined by a combination of its several hypostases; law is simultaneously a kind of ethical norm realizing moral-religious values of the society, an internal collective-psychological fact and an objectified social phenomenon. In the opinion of N. Alekseev (1879-1964), legal values are a necessary element of the structure of law. In the pluralistic legal conceptions of B. Kistiakovsky (1868-1920), P Sorokin (1889-1968), and G. Gurvie (1894-1965) law is considered to be a social, psychological, and normative phenomenon and it expresses the tendency to do what is right and just in the concrete social order.
2. An important peculiarity of the "Russian project" of the integrative conception of law was the accent on the internal connection between law and the ultimate basis of reality and an explanation of the involvement of law in the ethical world. The personification of this tendency was the definition of law as an "ethical minimum" adopted from Western legal philosophy (G. Jellinek, E. von Hartmann3) that received its moral-religious foundation in Solov'ev's works. This definition answered the main purpose of the doctrine of all-unity - to reconcile rival legal traditions. Vl. Solov'ev and his followers contributed to the recognition of the emancipation of law from morality, but then developed their own strategy for the moral justification of law. By offering the ethical minimum as a new criterion of the moral validation of law, they fulminated against "the senseless and pernicious experiments in compulsory righteousness and obligatory holiness"4.
Vl. Solov'ev substantiates law as a necessary condition of the fulfillment of the "absolute Good'.' He came to the conclusion that the amount of ethical requirements guaranteed by law in comparison with the entire field of ethical norms needed for human 'perfection' is minimal. Legal rules always make a modest demand on the fulfillment of good ends, which is "the lowest limit or the definite minimum of morality" This thesis was the basis of his axiological definition of law: "law requires the realization of a certain minimum good; it is an order that does not admit of evilr5. The ethical potential of law increases or diminishes in accordance with the moral standing of society. Law and morality are inseparable in their progress and decline: in any given legal order there occurs a constant realization of the moral convictions of the age.
The fundamental norms of an ethical social order in the absence of which society could not live and develop must have legal protection. In other words, a publicly secured minimum of Good serves as a criterion for lawfulness. The limits of the minimum of Good protected by law and the legal aspect of justice are defined by the philosopher by appealing to the idea of an equitable balance between individual freedom and the common weal, which is a specific character of law6.
Solov'ev restates his conception in "The Basis of the Social Concept" of the Russian Orthodox Church (IV 2):
The law is called to manifest the one divine law of the universe in social and political realms. At the same time any legal system developed by the human community, being as it is a fruit of historical development, carries a seal of limitation and imperfection. <...> The law contains a certain minimum of moral standards compulsory for all members of society7.
3. A moral-religious explanation of the theory of the ethical minimum - "theology of moral minimum" (R. Hofmann) - is reproduced in the conception of the Austrian philosopher, a representative of the Catholic social doctrine Johannes Messner (1891-1984). He defined law as a "moral minimum necessary for the existence of society "8. The concept of the ethical minimum in law he considered to be a logical consequence of the religious interpretation of the theory of natural law, the best example of which was developed in Thomism.
The doctrine of natural law theoretically considers a positive law to be a certain minimum of realization of morality necessary for the existence and life of society and in practice always held the opinion that a person meets a requirement of justice when she acts in accordance with the laws of her community so long as she has no reasons to consider them unjust9.
According to Messner, law as a social order is always in complete agreement with the order of the existential ends of a person and is directly connected to her moral responsibility. By means of the natural law the natural moral-legal consciousness of a person reveals the fundamental requirements of the social order, which are elevated to the status of moral-legal principles10. In his opinion, legal rules cannot contradict the natural law of morals [Sittengesetz]. When law is incompatible with the existential ends of persons it conflicts with its moral nature and looses therefore its legal fundament (as stated in the doctrine of natural law)11.
An interesting continuation the theory of the ethical minimum is found in the conception of justice as a "minimum of the demand of love" of the Belgian philosopher and a Catholic theologian, L. Janssens (1908-2001).
Justice... has as its object the minimum of objective elements and relations needed to make love possible and to safeguard it12.
The duties of justice, the philosopher supposes, are most urgent and must be fulfilled first. "This does not mean that justice ranks higher than love or can be separated from it. But justice deals with the strictly necessary minimum of love's obligations." The minimum of love thereby constantly changes. What formerly were considered acts of love are now viewed as duties of justice13. Because love knows no bounds, the legal order will be never "finished"14.
These ideas were further developed in the works of the Dutch thinker WA Luijpen (1922- ). He agrees with Janssens that justice is a readiness to guarantee a minimal demand of love. "The minimum of the demand of love, the demand which human existence as co-existence itself is, can thus be formulated as the most fundamental right of the other."15 This minimum is called a "right" and is understood as the moral force of the subject to fulfill her own individuality and her own world16. The other's right is the minimum of my "yes" to his subjectivity, a "yes" called by my existence as a "having to be for the other"as an "ought" on the level of co-existence17. Luijpen compares laws realizing a minimal demand of love with a "barrier which permanently robs the 'wolf' in man of his chances"18. The legal order is the first step on the effective humanization of society, the first success in taming the "wolf',, the first victory over barbarism. This allows the determination of law as a "minimum of humanity" whose boundaries constantly shift19. He emphasizes that dynamism of love changes the legal order. The ethical progress of the legal order is a true indicator
of the level of love achieved in the society. It is evident that reciprocal love among persons is necessary for the effectiveness of the legal order. Moreover, it is evident that in a society where love is absent there is absolutely no real sense of rights20.
4. Since the second half of the twentieth century the accent has shifted to the discussion of the role of law and morality in the multicultural world, and the meaning of the central category of the doctrine - the ethical minimum - has been transformed from a social-ethical to the intercultural element of law (the "cultural minimum," in the expression of A Uhle). In this regard the „ethical minimum" is considered to be the only possible form of the ethos and at the same time a fundamental value within legal communication in the pluralist society (J. Messner, R. Hofmann, G. Küchenhoff, R. Marcic, A Kaufmann and G. Deussen). The great achievement of the theory of the ethical minimum consists in the fact that it manages to express a crucial rule: law does not lay claim to something other than the realization of the "ethical minimum"; this function of law, as noted by Marcic, is important in a modern pluralist society in which law is now the most predominant basic condition for existence on Earth21.
The first serious investigation of the notion of "minimum" in jurisprudence belongs to G. Küchenhoff (1907-1983) - a German lawyer and professor of the University of Würzberg. In the article "The concept 'minimum' in jurisprudence" (1959), he describes „the general minimum" as "the general minimum in interests, values, and ideas"22. This general minimum is „the foundation of the unity in diversity of communities of different types and the bonding medium in the pluralist society."23 From his point of view, „the unity" in multicultural society can be imagined as „a minimal unity"24.
In as much as law does not make high moral demands and contains only an "ethical minimum" it is possible in principle to come to an agreement concerning the fundamental practical norms of human behavior25. This minimal basis should not be a kind of compromise, but a thorough recognition of the foundation of values of legal communication26.
In his article "The moral minimum in the plural society" (1969) a professor of the moral theology in Freiburg, Rudolf Hofmann (1904-1994), formulates important ideas concerning the methodology of the determination of the moral minimum as well as the role of the Catholic Church in the contemporary multicultural world. He describes the moral minimum as "the core of the value and the obligatory meanings of morality in seeking to protect, preserve, and favour the development of society as the main condition of their existence and ordered co-existence as well as their function to serve the common good"27. That is why the moral minimum as the core of general morality is an unremovable necessity in the multilevel pluralism of our society28.
Three levels constitute the moral minimum: (1) concrete norms, (2) fundamental moral values, and (3) a basic world outlook29. In determining the moral minimum quantative methods should be avoided as well as the reduction or minimization of moral responsibility and ideological interpretations. The moral minimum cannot be discerned by means of calculation, compromise or an induction from concrete values, but solely by understanding the profound value foundations of human life and coexistence30. The formulation of the moral minimum is possible only within the bounds of an equal and free dialogue and the internal harmonization of all three levels. The starting point is recognition of the absolute value of a person and her inalienable dignity.
Hofmann formulates a categorical imperative for society as follows: exert every effort to achieve full-fledged integral substantiation of the moral minimum. The role of the Church does not consist in formulating or prescribing these norms but in contributing to a free dialogue, mutual understanding, recognition and integration of values.
Thus, in the inter-confessional and secular discussions of the correlation of law and morality in contemporary pluralist society, the doctrine of law as the "minimum of Good," seeking the common basis of diverse conceptions of values which is "indifferent to the difference of cultures" (O. Höffe), seems to be the meeting point of the ideas of all-unity and universalism.
References
1 The Research is supported by Russian Humanitarian Scientific Fund (RGNF), research project № 08-03-00662a - "The theory of the ethical minimum in history and the present':
2 I. Il'in. O suölnosti pravosoznanija In Sobranie soänenij (Vol. 4). Moscow: Russkaja kniga 1994. P 188, 191, 208, 212 ff.
3 G. Jellinek. Die sozialethische Bedeutung von Recht, Unrecht und Strafe. II. durchgesehene Auflage. Berlin. 1908. S. 45; E. von Hartmann. Das sittliche Bewusstsein. Eine Entwickelung seiner mannigfaltigen Gestalten in ihrem inneren Zusammenhange mit besonderer Rücksicht auf brennende soziale und kirchliche Fragen der Gegenwart. 2. Aufl. Berlin, 1886. S. 427-428.
4 VS. Solov'ev. [V Solovyof] The Justification of the Good: An Essay in Moral Philosophy. London. 1918. P 455.
5 VS. Solov'ev. Pravo i nravstvennost' [Law and Morality]. Minsk, 2001. P 33, 35.
6 Ibid. P 40.
7 The Basis of Social Concept" of Russian Orthodox Church'.' See: Official Web Server of the Moscow Patriarchate: URL: http://www.mospat.ru/index.php?mid=90.
8 J. Messner. Das Naturrecht. Handbuch der Gesellschaftsethik, Staatsethik und Wirtschaftsethik. 4. Aufl. Berlin. 1960. S. 202.
9 Ibid. S. 199.
10 Ibid. S. 201.
11 Ibid. S. 202-203. Compare with: V.S. Solov'ev. [V. Solovyof] The Justification of the Good. P. 380; A Ja ölenko. Teorija federalisma In Filosofija prava Vladimira Solov'eva Teorija federalisma Opyt sinteticveskoj teorii prava i gosudarstva Saint-Peterburg: Aletejja 1999. P 135, 118.
12 L. Janssens. Naastenliefde en rechtvaardigheid // Kultuurleven. Vol. XIX (1952). P. 12. Цнт. no: WA. Luijpen. Existential phenomenology. Pittsburg. 1962. P 244.
13 Compare with: "Today's justice is yesterday's love; today's love is tomorrow's justice'.' M. Gillet. Justice et Charite // Semaine sociale de France. 1928. P. 132.
14 Ibid. P. 15, 18-20. Cit.: WA Luijpen. Existential phenomenology. P 246, 258.
15 WA Luijpen. Phenomenology of Natural Law. Pittsburgh. 1967. P 180.
16WA Luijpen. 1) Existential phenomenology. P. 244, 250; 2) Phenomenology of Natural Law. Pittsburgh. 1967. P. 181.
17 WA Luijpen. Phenomenology of Natural Law. P. 180.
18WA Luijpen. 1) Phenomenology of Natural Law. P. 207; 2) Existential phenomenology. P. 250. In harmony with this expression is the following thought of AI. Solzhenitsyn: "Law is a minimum of moral requirements to a person, below which she is dangerous for the society'.' See: AI. Solzhenitsyn. Kak nam obustroit' Rossiju. Posil'nye soobra^enija // Special'nyj vypusk. Broöura k gazette "Komsomol'skaja Pravda" 18 September 1990. - URL: http://www.lib.ru/PROZA/SOLZHENICYN/ s_kak_1990.txt.
Матушанская Ю.Г. Мессианское движение в Российской Империи
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19WA Luijpen. Existential phenomenology. IP 248. 20WA Luijpen. Existential phenomenology. II 258-259.
21Marcic R. Um eine Grundlegung des Rechts. Existentiale und fundamentalontologische Elemente im Rechtsdenken der Gegenwart // Kaufmann A (Hrsg.) Die ontologische Begründung des Rechts. Darmstadt. 1965. S. 547. The Austrian lawyer characterizes Vl. Solov'ev's position as a "universal-political standpoint':
22G. Küchenhoff. Der Begriff des „Minimum" in der Rechtswissenschaft // Neue Juristische Wochenschrift. 1959. 12. Jhrg. 2. Halbband. S. 1254.
23G. Küchenhoff. Rechtsbesinnung. Eine Rechtsphilosophie. Göttingen. 1973. S. 15-16. 24 Ebd. S. 19.
25See also: Maritain J. Man and the State. Chicago. 1951. P 76-77.
26G. Küchenhoff. 1) Der Begriff des „Minimum" in der Rechtswissenschaft. S. 1254; 2) Rechtsbesinnung. Eine Rechtsphilosophie. S. 17-18; G. Küchenhoff, E. Küchenhoff. Allgemeine Staatslehre. 8. überarb. u. erg. Aufl. Stuttgart. 1977. S. 27, 223-224.
27R. Hofmann. Das sittliche Minimum in der pluralen Gesellschaft // Theologische Quartalschrift. 1969. Nr. 149. S. 30. 28Ebd. S. 29.
29 Ebd. S. 31.
30 Ebd. S. 29.
В конце XIX - начале XX в. во всем мире возникают национальные движения, идеология которых обращается к легендам и мифам своего народа. Для евреев таким легендарным прошлым стало время библейских пророков. Это явление М. Бубер назвал еврейским романтизмом. К данному ряду можно отнести и мессианский иудаизм, который вписывается в идею положительного всеединства Соловьёва как одно из осуществлений всеобъемлющей цели исторического процесса, со-деятельность Бога и людей и приближение к идеалу Богочеловечества.
At the end of the XIX century and the beginning of the XX centuries all over the world the national movements began, and their ideology addresses to legends and myths of their nation. For Jews the time of Biblical prophets became such a legendary past. M. Buber called this phenomenon the Jewish romanticism. The Messianic Judaism is included into the idea of Solovyov's positive all-unity, as one of realization of all-embracing purposes of the historic process, co-activity of God and people and approaching the ideal of God-Manhood.
Ключевые слова: мессианский иудаизм, сионизм, Израиль, всеединство, библейские пророки, Богочеловечество.
Keywords: the Messianic Judaism, the Zionist movement, Israel, all-unity, Biblical prophets, God-Manhood.
УДК 1(091) ББК 87.3(2)51
МЕССИАНСКОЕ ДВИЖЕНИЕ В РОССИЙСКОЙ ИМПЕРИИ В КОНТЕКСТЕ ИДЕИ ВСЕЕДИНСТВА В. СОЛОВЬЁВА
Традиционно считается, что у западной цивилизации три основных источника: Библия, греко-римская культура и варварская культура. Тенденции универсализма и национально-религиозной обособленности, существовавшие внут-
