Law Philosophical Foundations of the Early Eastern States

Abstract

The article is devoted to the elucidation of the ideological foundations of the law of the states of the early civilizations of the East, which last from the VII millennium BC (Sumer and Akkad, Babylon, India, China and Egypt). The spontaneously formed mythical, religious, moral and rational components of the worldview, as well as elements of philosophical doctrines are analyzed, traced as the unity of the notions of the gravity of sin and sinful behavior and even the community as a whole, caste character based on the idea of the inevitability of social inequality, the subordinate position of women, and significant differences in different legal systems, based on the specifics of economic structure and political system, civilizational and cultural differences, historical features of state formation, as well as worldviews of peoples, their understanding of the world, world order, natural and terrestrial laws. It is concluded that the general primary basis of the legal worldview of the peoples of the early states of the East are mythical and religious beliefs of peoples (as, incidentally, in all other early states), which served to explain the world order and justify the general laws of nature, and also served as a criterion for evaluating human actions.These ideas were based on common to all civilizations moral ideas about good and evil, justice and injustice, truth and injustice, moral and immoral. In philosophical treatises, in some literary and legal sources of the ancient East, one can find key common moral postulates that take long from the most ancient beliefs and religions and moral rules, known to science, and then reflected in Hinduism, Christianity, Islam. From the point of view of social and state ideology, the ruling elite was interested in spreading and affirming the notions of the sanctity and inviolability of the supreme power of rulers, who often combined religious and secular power. The laws of the rulers were also proclaimed by the commands of the gods, the highe rpowers, which must be strictly observed by all. This view of laws was reinforced by a system of severe punishments for violating them. Although this together helped to centralize the early states, to establish more effective protection against external enemies, and from the point of view of internal organization to keep the people firmly in subjection, it did not contribute to the development of ideals of individual freedom.