Natural Laws of Society Development: Gnoseological Aspect

Abstract. It was found that the natural and legal laws of the development of society are an integral component of the formation of a civilized legal system within the legal space. A person cannot influence the norms of natural law, but only use them as much as possible, get to know them and embody them in the positive legal field of the state for the formation of a legal and democratic society. A valuable dimension of the development of a human-centered society is the level of legal awareness and legal culture of its citizens, as well as the ability to form value-legal guidelines for lawful behavior in the younger generation. It is emphasized that social processes in the modern world are dynamic and not always positive law can timely regulate certain relations, given the duration of the legislative process. Norms of natural law operate continuously and are always "ready" to adjust certain aspects of society's functioning. It is noted that social morality is also formed on the basis of the norms of natural law, customs and traditions of a certain community of people, but often the norms of morality do not correspond to the norms of natural law, or even contradict them. Such a situation occurs under conditions when society neglects universal human values, is formed as authoritarian or totalitarian. People's value orientations undergo certain deformation due to the influence of illegal ideology, distorted perception of socio-cultural phenomena. The negative aspect is that such anti-value attitudes of a person may be reflected in the adoption of normative legal acts of the state, the implementation and observance of which will be universally mandatory. Attention is focused on the fact that the norms of natural law influence the formation of legal awareness of a specific person and society in general, which is an important factor for the full development of state society, because citizens with such a level of legal awareness are able to form civil society and develop it as much as possible in the direction of the rule of law. The legal culture of a person is formed under the influence of social values, moral and ethical norms and legal awareness. It is important not only to actively develop legal culture, but also to form it in time. We are talking about the young generation, whose legal consciousness and culture must be formed from childhood. In this process, an important role belongs to educational institutions, the family, and the environment. Keywords: natural law; society; legal culture; legal consciousness; positive law; value-based legal orientations.