Page:Struggle for Law (1915).djvu/20

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Introduction


if not a metaphysical, foundation for a new juristic construction which enabled the law to emerge from the blind alley into which it had entered in following Kant.

It is perhaps still a question whether philosophies create movements in the outer world, or whether they only reflect or follow these movements; but in any case the social utilitarianism of Jhering came in season to synchronize with the most significant development of the law in modern times — the change from the individual to the social emphasis. Jhering’s solution was not, however, the only escape from Kant’s blind alley. The Neo-Kantians, too, have become social utilitarians, but their State yet has the negative character of a “Rechtsstaat.” Stammler, the leading exponent of a revised Kantianism, is unable to lay down a single positive principle to govern the attitudes of the law. The difference between “do not” and “do” is all that separates the civilizations of the Orient and Occident, and a system of legal philosophy which makes the function of the State

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