This article examines the problem of correlation and dialectical connection between the theories of social being and law in the works of the prominent philosophers of the XIX – XX centuries (Émile Durkheim, Max Weber, Karl Marx, Georges Gurvitch, Jean Baudrillard, Michel Foucault, Niklas Luhmann, Jürgen Habermas, and others) who worked at the intersection of several fields of social sciences and made significant contribution to the theory of state and law. These scholars predicted multiple problems of modernity; therefore, reference to their theoretical heritage is valuable in the search of new legal understanding, the need for which has existed for a long time. The scientific novelty consists in the analysis of views of the leading theoreticians who dealt with the correlation between law and social sciences. Social in the social sciences was often considered from the perspective of evolution of human relations. The essence of the social was revealed in various types of cohesion of population or connectedness between the members of social groups. In such relations, an important element was morality, which emerged much earlier than law. Morality emerged with the conception of the social, while law – only with the advent of the state. The classical social theories of the late XIX – early XX centuries, identified the concept of “society” mostly with the politically organized and territorially restricted society of the modern Western national state.
Law and social theory: problem of dialectical connection in the works of philosophers of the XIX – XX centuries
