Universe of Platonic Thought 2022

31st International Conference “The Universe of Platonic Thought: Plato’s Dialectics: Method, Norm, Self-Knowledge”

Pavel Likhter, CSc in Law, Associate Professor; Penza State University (Penza, Russia), Associate Professor

Antique dialectics in legal science

The report considers separate issues of the application of the dialectical method in legal science. The specificity in the approaches of Zenon, Heraclitus, Socrates, Plato is consistently considered. If Zeno can be considered the ancestor of formal dialectics, where the main thing is the procedure for scientific reasoning, then the ancestor of material dialectics was Herciting. In the context of human rights concepts, the logical structure of some phrases of Heraclitus can be applied to the basic principles of jurisprudence. Such a prospect is important for establishing borders between legal reality and facts. Socratic Elenahos in relation to modern jurisprudence establishes a ban on the use of a hypothetical judgment. Platonic dialectics synthesized the formal dialectics of Zeno and material dialectics of Heraclitus. In this case, the formal dialectic of Plato is based on the so -called Negative dialectics of Socrates. The goal of Platonic dialectics is to direct people to find what is instead of what seems. However, the result of such a dialectical method may well be destructive. This may be why Plato recommends starting the study of dialectics only by reaching the age of 30 (state, 537D). The same fact should be taken into account when critical consideration of relevant political and legal issues in the context of Platonic dialectics.

Keywords: Dialectics, Plato, Zenon, Heraclitus, Socrates, Elenhos, Law, Jurisprudence, Human Rights.

The “dialectics” in Plato’s teaching is a complex “concept-zontic concept”, which covers very heterogeneous ontological and epistemological aspects, including political and legal issues.

The first philosopher to use the dialectical method to achieve the goals was Zenon. However, Zenon's dialectics contributed to more likely to detect logical paradoxes than to seek the truth. That is, Zenon was the first to use the deconstruction method among the philosophers of the Western European tradition.

If Zeno can be considered the ancestor of formal dialectics, where the main thing is the procedure for scientific reasoning, then the ancestor of material dialectics was Herciting. The “dark” manner of his philosophizing has become one of the significant factors in the development of hermeneutics. The interpretation of Heraclitus requires an extraordinary skill in interpretation and getting used to someone else's text.

So suggests a thoughtful interpretation of his phrase: “Immortal - mortal, mortals are immortal; They live by the death of each other, they die with each other's life ”(“ About nature ”). This fragment allows us to draw several conclusions at once: about the unity of the world, which does not exclude the clash of opposites; The adherence to the fact that later Hegel will call the law of struggle and unity of opposites; About the holistic relationship of the elements of the world.

In the context of the concepts of human rights, the logical structure of the heraclitus is considered to be applied to some basic principles of jurisprudence. As a result, the initial phrase can be converted, for example, into a dialectical thesis of a pair of equality-unequalism: “The unequal are equal, equal inequal: they mutually“ live ”with their equality and“ die ”by their inequality”. This modification, in turn, opens the path of interpretation both in the spirit of the sociology of law and in the spirit of normativism of G. Kelsen.

Platonic dialectics synthesized the formal dialectics of Zeno and material dialectics of Heraclitus. In this case, the formal dialectic of Plato is based on the so -called Negative dialectics of Socrates. However, in the late dialogs of Plato, a positive dialectic is already formed. Hegel was distinguished by the “highest form of dialectics”, developed by Plato, from the Socratic form that he used in the early dialogs.

The goal of Platonic dialectics is to direct people to find what is instead of what seems. However, the result of such a dialectical method may well be destructive. This fact understood Plato, which is confirmed by his recommendation in the “state” to begin the study of dialectics only upon reaching 30 years of age (537D). The same fact should be taken into account when critical consideration of relevant political and legal issues in the context of Platonic dialectics.