Laws, Causality, and Retribution – Hans Kelsen and Edgar Zilsel. A Marginal Note

Hans Kelsen and Edgar Zilsel shared a common interest in how the instruments of human thinking developed. Both scholars took a historical as well as a sociological perspective. Kelsen focused on the difference and the mutual relations between two forms of connecting events: The earlier instrument of Imputation meaning the linking of events by a normative proposition, originally the principle of retribution, and – stemming from this – the instrument of Causality meaning an objective connection of events, closely linked with the idea of Laws of Nature. Zilsel aimed at the emergence of empirical thinking by locating the origins of modern science within closer defined historical situations. The essay reflects on the complementary character of both scholars’ respective attempts with a view on persisting questions like the one about “free will”.