The essay aims at analysis of the manner Polish jurisprudence perceives a role of critical perspective within legal thought. Only such critique might be plausibly called a 'reflection', since it is conducted from an internal point of view  the viewpoint of legal professionals who criticize their own conceptual schemes. This analysis of theoretical projects is made in the light of sociological processes of increasing reflexivity of social practices and institutions, law included (Giddens).
The essay takes under examination four particular metaphors which are to be met in Polish jurisprudence: a lawyer as a philosopher, a lawyer as an artist, a lawyer as a participant of culture, and a lawyer as a believer. Each of them offers a slightly different answer to the question on the room for critical reflection in the law. The particular interest is paid to the way these four various theoretical proposals recognize, respectively: a significance of professional legal tradition, mutual relations between law and its social surroundings, as well as a role of individual agent in legal practice.

The essay aims at analysis of the manner Polish jurisprudence perceives a role of critical perspective within legal thought. Only such critique might be plausibly called a 'reflection', since it is conducted from an internal point of view  the viewpoint of legal professionals who criticize their own conceptual schemes. This analysis of theoretical projects is made in the light of sociological processes of increasing reflexivity of social practices and institutions, law included (Giddens).
The essay takes under examination four particular metaphors which are to be met in Polish jurisprudence: a lawyer as a philosopher, a lawyer as an artist, a lawyer as a participant of culture, and a lawyer as a believer. Each of them offers a slightly different answer to the question on the room for critical reflection in the law. The particular interest is paid to the way these four various theoretical proposals recognize, respectively: a significance of professional legal tradition, mutual relations between law and its social surroundings, as well as a role of individual agent in legal practice.