The article is a summary and development of some methodological provisions of the general cultural concept of law, where critical thinking, as the most important practical aspect of critical rationalism for jurisprudence, is interpreted in its salutary role for societies. The main obstacles in the formation of legal states as societies organized on the basis of the equal rights of each person are the archetypes of the past (the cult of force, the dichotomy of “friend or foe” and the irrational functional inconsistency of spheres of activity), which in the 21st century becomes an expression of the criminal act typical for representatives of non-creative secondary cultures. An example of the political, legal and economic degradation of Argentina in the twentieth century is given as a possible parallel for modern Ukraine.

The author notes the special role of the principles of the Reformation (1. equality, 2. individual responsibility, 3. the cult of honest labor) for modern legal understanding and the formation of a legal reality based on the observance of human rights, which was the result of critical rational thinking and actions. He proves that critical thinking is an epistemological tool that allows one to overcome the limitation of thinking and actions caused by the archetypes of the past, which becomes a condition for the survival of societies in the modern world, since the law realizes the unity of morality and intellect (mind).

Key words: law, culture, legal reality, philosophy of law, critical thinking, critical rationalism, society.

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