Divergenze teoriche e vite parallele. Gustav Bergmann, Hans Kelsen e le teoria pura del diritto

Between 1945 and 1947, the Austrian-American ontologist Gustav Bergmann published in Ethics (together with Lewis Zerby) two book reviews and an article, providing an early analysis – in the American philosophical context – of Hans Kelsen’s pure theory of law. From an ontologically realist viewpoint, Gustav Bergmann criticizes the confusion between ontology and epistemology, derived from Kantian metaphysics and, consequently, the ambiguous use, in Kelsen’s theory, of a “formalist” approach. The paper aims to contribute to the history of Kelsen's reception in the United States and to present Bergmann’s criticisms both from a philosophical and a biographical viewpoint. At the same time, it aims to assess Bergmann’s criticisms vis-à-vis possible periodizations of the development of Kelsen’s legal theory.