Logical Foundations in the Study of Aristotle's Politics and Law

The paper is devoted to the metaphysical and logical foundations of Aristotle’s doctrine of law and the state. In the Nicomachean Ethics, he referred to his teaching as the «science of state law», while in the Politics he called it «political science». In other words, he assigned his doctrine to the highest level of cognition — that of reason. In his pursuit of truth in the understanding of law and the state, Aristotle employed both categorical and dialectical syllogisms. Over the course of the millennia, the problems raised by Aristotle have remained central to the study of the state and the theory of law, which makes it possible to regard him as a founder of legal science. At the same time, Aristotle posed the problem of the use of the practical syllogism in lawmaking and law enforcement. On the one hand, such a syllogism is the result of the free will and rational judgment of the statesman; on the other hand, it constitutes a prescription concerning proper conduct. In the modern era, a new non-classical logic — deontic logic — began to take shape. During its formation, the problem was raised that prescriptive statements are neither true nor false. By the mid-twentieth century, thanks to the works of G. H. von Wright, the development of deontic logic was completed with this position taken into account. However, first, Aristotle’s practical syllogism, according to the philosopher’s own doctrine, is itself a prescription concerning what ought to be, and its premises are neither true nor false. Second, the development of deontic logic in the second half of the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries once again raised the problem of truth in law. This makes it possible to argue that Aristotle’s doctrine of the practical syllogism laid the foundation for the emergence of deontic logic.

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