Variedades de positivismos y ontología social

The article comments on the first chapter of the book Positivismo jurídico “interno”. The author’s positivism is featured as a normative positivism different from the skeptical and reductionist positivist versions, whose novelty lies in the ontological turn that implies its emphasis on the analysis of the social source thesis. The author conceives the social source thesis under the theory of Searle’s institutional facts. This ontological turn allows the author to support the idea that legal duties are constitutive elements of the law. Then, a critique of the social ontology that is behind the position defended by Redondo is presented, based on Epstein’s questioning of Searle’s model. On this base, the article suggests that Redondo’s ontological critique can’t undermine the ontological assumptions of the positivist tradition, because those aspects could be reconciled under a model of social ontology like the one defended by Epstein.