The Reception of Lotman's Models of 'Agreement' and 'Self-giving' In Russian Legal Philosophy

In his famous article, " ‘Agreement’ and ‘Self-giving’ as archetypal models of culture " (1984), Lotman among other things has identified two distinctive types of archetypical models of culture - the magical one and the religious one. Each of these cultural models is characterized by a special , fundamentally different types of relationships. The main vehicle of magical model of culture is a notion of agreement which is, in the very broad meaning, regarded from within a Russian wordview as a complete antithesis to ‘an unconditional act of self-giving’ with the latter being a pivotal element of religious culture. Lotman’s typology of archetypal models in culture compare and contrast with work done in the western legal philosophy, sociology and anthroplogy on the notion ‘contract’ , and as such it would help to explain the remarkably different routes of the evolution of Western European and Russian legal culture.