In Defense of Modern Times: A Keynote Address

Abstract

“Defense of Modern Times” is a previous title of Kelsen’s Secular Religion, perhaps a “Leitmotiv” of his whole oeuvre. His modernity is rooted in secularization and intensified in Viennese modernity’s efforts for a scientific worldview. Always a critic of ideology, Kelsen fought against all residua of premodern thinking, including the concept of the state as an entity beyond the law. Relying on Freud, among others, Kelsen regards concepts of substance as the common feature of premodernity. Politically, Kelsen’s modernity lies in his understanding of law as “positive”—manmade and therefore modifiable—law. Related to the creation of the positive law, Kelsen’s appreciation for value relativism guides his support for parliamentary democracy. According to Kelsen, a well-functioning democracy has a complementary conception of man.

Voegelin’s “New Science of Politics,” which denounces positivism as a gnostic heresy, was for Kelsen “an eminent danger for objective and independent science.” A main point of Kelsen’s critique is Voegelin’s (mis)conception of political movements as “religions without god.”

It seems appropriate to emphasize that Kelsen was not a Jewish-inspired thinker. Nor should we succumb to the temptation to turn anti-Semitic attacks into positive imputations. However, it is illuminating to consider how Kelsen sees “religion,” because the insistence on god parallels his norm-theoretical principle, “No Imperative without Imperator.” “Religion without God?” is another previous title of Kelsen’s Secular Religion and is almost identical to the title of Ronald Dworkin’s last book. This circumstance offers the opportunity to compare the differences between them, which reflects their respective legal theoretical approaches.