The Reality that Ought to Be as Fate

Abstract

The expression “reality that ought to be” may well be a coinage of mine, but what it expresses—something like a pragmatic and vital nonsense (Malinowski, infra—Bronislaw Malinowski, 1884–1942)—is not. Nor was it invented by Hans Kelsen, even if he was its foremost 20th-century theoriser and built on das Sollen a daring cathedral of crystal, sophisticated, glorious, and fragile. Finally, the idea of the reality that ought to be was not invented by the jurists, either, despite the fact that they have been handling it for centuries, not always consciously or with due care.