The Significance of Mythologems in Constructing the Image of Law

Introduction. The article is devoted to the importance of mythologems in constructing the image of law. The process of constructing legal reality is considered in the context of the formation of knowledge about it, as about the regulatory and legal system of society based on conventional values. Special attention is paid to mythologism, an integral part of the learning process. The article notes that mythologems act as a membrane of the sphere of meaningful existence of people, allowing them to fearlessly look into the future, to construct this future in accordance with the material living conditions of the people’s mentality, their ideals and aspirations.

Methodology and materials. The research is based on a critical analysis of philosophical, sociological, and legal theories, including classical approaches to understanding law. The article is written from the standpoint of postclassical methodology, which focuses on the contextuality of the legal phenomenon and its inherent existence in the human life world.

The results of the study and their discussion. It is revealed that the construction of the image of law is associated with mythologems, which act as the cementing core of the entire human sociality, revealing themselves in the intellectual tradition. Therefore, the mythologization of law is the result of philosophizing, they contain a semantic, identification, interpretative and ideological component. Therefore, the construction of legal reality is inherently linked to the knowledge and understanding of socially significant patterns of behavior, reified in mythological forms.

Conclusions. The constructed image of law in any culture is reified into mythologems that are fixed doctrinally in various cultural texts, thereby revealing the originality of the legal tradition. The legal tradition is a complex tradition, and not only the current generations participate in its formation, but also all the others who have already passed away. Therefore, the continuity of the scale of proper, possible and necessary behavior is historically reproduced in social practice precisely in a mythological form. Emerging postclassical approaches should take this fact into account and not turn a blind eye to an allegedly insignificant defect. Almost every type of legal understanding is based on its own idea, which is mythically objectified in one form or another. Keywords: image of law, reification, legal tradition, legal understanding, mythologemes. For citation: Lomakina, I. B. (2025) The Significance of Mythologems in Constructing the Image of Law. Theoretical and Applied Law. No. 4 (26). Pp. 69–78. (In Russ.)

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