KNOWLEDGE METHODOLOGY IN JURISPRUDENCE AS A SCIENTIFIC AND PRACTICAL COMPLEX

Abstract

The article studies legal methodology as a scientific and practical complex. The methodology is defined as the doctrine of a method of cognition, a set of research techniques, a theory, or a concept that is the basis of a particular method of cognition. The article pays special attention to two approaches to legal methodology: scientific and philosophical. The first approach is interpreted as the use of general scientific methods, and the second one means that the principles, laws, and categories of philosophy are used to understand the law and the State, their genesis, manifestation, and functioning. The article mentions the conceptual and instrumental levels of the legal cognition methodology. The conceptual level includes paradigms, principles, conceptual approaches, doctrines, and concepts that determine the general state and direction of cognition. The instrumental level includes methods, concepts, categories, and notions. The cognition methodology in jurisprudence is determined by a systematic set of philosophical and scientific doctrines, conceptual ideas (models), methodological principles, paradigms, and methods. The author defines the practice as a test of theoretical concepts and doctrines. At the same time, the author rejects the formula "practice is a criterion of truth": practice can verify the truth of certain theoretical considerations, but it is not the only one that determines what is true and what is not. Based on the study's results, the Author concludes that abandoning the hierarchy of methodologies is necessary: there are no "higher" and "lower" methodologies.