Philosophy of Science and Philosophy of Legal Science

Abstract

The so-called legal dogmatics is a field of knowledge about the law focused on issues such as the definition of the meaning and scope of legal norms, the solution of conflicts between norms and the confrontation of legal loopholes – be they real or apparent. Brazilian jurists often consider this kind of knowledge to be scientific, and refer to it as Legal Science. This is done without much reflection, as if the scientific character of legal dogmatics were a given or a truism. The concept of science, in turn, is the main object of a discipline of philosophical knowledge: the Philosophy of Science. In this article, I intend to understand what the Philosophy of Science is, what it usually comprises, and whether and how it applies to legal dogmatics. In order to achieve that, I carried out theoretical and bibliographical research whose starting point resided in the bibliographic cutting made by the course “Philosophy of Science” of the platform Saylor Academy. Different sources were examined, systematized and compared with the intention of identifying the most consistent position. The article presents the following main results: the identification of the Philosophy of Science as a discipline distinct from the empirical or observational disciplines on Science; the confrontation of this discipline with the criticism that denounces its supposed uselessness; the defense of the relevance of the Philosophy of Science and its application to Law.