Legal Philosophy

Legalism is one of the ideologies of classical Chinese philosophy that is growing at approximately the same period with Confucianism (warring states period). The greatest thinker of this doctrine is Han Feizi, originating from Han’s country (during the Zhou dynasty, instead of Han dynasty). Although derived from the Han, but precisely this doctrine was used by the first Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huangdi. In other words, it is not Confucianism, but Legalism who has rendered to unite China.

The originator of this teaching is Shang Yang, a minister of the Shang Dynasty. This teaching then reached a peak in the Han Feizi thinking because of the book he wrote, Jia Fa. In contrast to Confucianism, Legalism managed well documented and the authenticity is still awake. It is also became the only classical thought which has the complete document.

Han Feizi, as a prince of the land of Han, is an intelligent but has a stuttering problem in speaking. When he was young he studied Confucianism in Xun Zi, along with the future prime minister of Qin country, Li Si. But with the passage of time, he was more interested in studying law. He saw that the moral is not the main criterion to make the order. He argues that people are basically bad and have a tendency to break the law, for that needed strict laws to prevent them.

His thinking is not acceptable in his own country (Han), so he went to his friend, Li Si, which has become the prime minister of the king of Qin. Li Si, who noticed the thought of Han Fei was brilliant, indeed betrayed him and landed him in jail on charges of domestic spying from Han.

Legalism is a pragmatic mindset and tends to avoid utopian such as Confucianism. Their thinking is very simple with the rationale, “People who do services will be rewarded while those who make mistakes will be given the punishment “. Due to this thinking, Qin Shi Huang is known as a very cruel tyrant king. Qin dynasty eventually became known as the first dynasty which succeeds to unite China, but also very quick to fall. This is because the application of Legalism requires a strong ruler.

Qin Shi Huang is not only unifying China in terms of territory, but also in many other things. Different writing united, size and dose, even up to the rules of the road construction synchronized throughout China. Upgraded the country’s defense (construction of Chang Cheng / Great Wall) to prevent the Mongol attacks. There’s only one very regrettable thing which is the burning of books, and the massacre of another school of thinkers, only to keep the Chinese philosophy Legalism.

Ethical Philosophy of Communication

Philosophy of communication is a discipline that examines the fundamental understanding, methodological, systematic, analytical, critical, and holistic theories and the communication process that encompasses all dimensions according to its field, its nature, the order, purpose, function, and the techniques and methods.

Value Logic, Ethics, Aesthetics of Communication

Logic is the science of works of the intellect to do the coaching of truth (nature), and the eternal truths. Ethics, morals, morality is the study of the values ??and foundation that deals with what is good, vices and how it should be. Dr. Franz von Magnis argued that ethics did not question the man but how humans should act (behavior and attitudes).

Ethics is also expressed as a general systematic study of what ought to be right and wrong of human behavior. While the moral (morality) is a standard of right and wrong that are practical (action) specific, mutually agreed upon and tend to be closer to the culture (cultural). According to Dean Barnlund, moral standards are proven to protect and develop healthy communication behavior. Meanwhile, according to Gerald Miller, he developed it in the form of questions like: What are the ethical responsibilities of a communicator to his audience? What are the basic values ??of democratic communication? And is sensor can be ethically justified?

In practice, there is no absolute ethics. For example, Machiavelli’s (famous Italian political philosopher) unethical behavior that justifies any means to achieve his goals. Or the ethical behavior of the Prophets, based on the story and respect for others.

Aesthetics is defined as the arrangements of a part of something that contain patterns that unite these parts which contain the alignment of its elements, giving rise to the beauty. Immanuel Kant argued that aesthetic is not related to the object, but with the pleasure perceived when he saw it.

Ethics and Philosophy of Communication

There are two judgments about the ethics and philosophy of communication, the first, philosophy of science is a branch of philosophy that examines the theory of knowledge thus becomes part of epistemology. Ethics related to the use of science so-called “ethics and philosophy of communication”. Second, the assessment that the nature of philosophy of communication as the epistemology of science communication.

The systematic explanation to understand the philosophy of communication can be obtained through the following things:

• Communication is a science which studies human effort in conveying the content of a statement to another human being.
• Philosophy is a science to look for profusely for everything that exists and may exist. Philosophy of science is served to look for answers from the nature of science.
• Philosophy of communication seeking answers about the nature of communication process, why the man was delivering the contents of his statement to another human being.

Knowledge

There are four types of people, among others:

• Man who know that he knows. These humans are knowledgeable, capable, to give a statement on an object, and could remember what happened in the past.
• Man who know that he did not know. He conscious of himself and therefore ask, investigate to fulfill his curiosity.
• Man who does not know that he know, has not been enabled for member statements or judgments of an opponent with it.
• Man who does not know that he did not know, these types of humans are commonly known as “smartass”.

Knowledge is the result of natural contiguity with the senses, referred to as specialized knowledge. But common knowledge is more unique, humans are never come into contact with common objects in direct contact with the senses. Humans take the general conclusions of the special things with the mind through the logic. Either specific or general knowledge is still there. Logical thinking to deduce the general case of special things is called as inductive. The converse to conclude a special case of general terms is called deductive.

Philosophy of Communication

• Communication is a science which studies human effort in conveying the content of his message to another human being.
• Philosophy is a science that seeks deep reasons for everything that exists and may exist.
• Philosophy of science is looking for answers and the nature of science
• Philosophy of communication seeking answers about the nature of the communication
• Philosophy of life is a unity of values, ?? which according to the owners have the greatest degree and if it is realized he believes that he will gain some happiness.

The study of political philosophy was born from the branch of practical philosophy. However, the discussions of political philosophy must still be distinguished with philosophy of science. Philosophy is an attempt to seek the truth down to its roots. While political philosophy is the study of moral judgments and criticism of the processes underlying social, political and economic which aims to drive the creation of good and proper organizational structure of society.

Political philosophy has occurred since the era of ancient Greece. Till now political philosophy continues to experience growth, starts from its journey since the era of Ancient Greece, then passes through the medieval, renaissance, the Enlightenment Era, modern century until today raises a variety of work and great ideas from the experts.

From the eras at least 18 major works appeared on political philosophy field. Here we will explore some big ideas about political philosophy from every era, including:

Plato – Politea

Plato was a philosopher who lived during the period about 428 to 348 BC in Athens. He wrote the concept with the name Politea at 365 BC, at the time when the concept of Athenian democracy (Polis) has been applied. Principal thoughts of Politea were talking about the concept of the State as macro-antropos. Plato focuses his study about the concept of justice, the virtue and political order. Political philosophy have evolved since the era of Plato.

Aristoteles – Politica

Aristotle was also a Greek philosopher who lived from about 348 to 322 BC. He was born in Stagira and died in Chalkis. Aristotle Politica draft after he studied the concept of Plato about Politea. Thoughts about Politica
were addressed in response to Plato. Aristotle sparked his thinking when it starts to collapse the concept of Polis in Athens. At that time the prevailing concept was regarding to cosmopolitan Hellenism initiated by Alexander de Great. The idea from Politica is there should be a separation between the political and non-political. Because of the thought, Plato finally expose the cores regarding the concept of citizen, the concept of property, and the concept of political community. The concept of proprietary was later developed by John Locke.

Aurelius Agustinus

Aurelius Augustine was famous church fathers through the ages. He was born in Tagase, North Africa in 354 AD. Although was born as a son of Africa, but Augustine has a big name in the Roman. Augustine lived in the early medieval Christian (post-Roman). At that time the displacement occurs between the nations which then caused controversy among Christian and non-Christian.

At this time, Augustine then collects his thoughts on political philosophy into a masterpiece called “De Civitate Dei”.  In the great work, Augustine describes his ideas about “justice as a criterion of legitimacy of the nation”. Augustine also emphasizes on “God’s Country” and “State of the World”, mingle in empirical state.

The most interesting is the emergence of the phrase about “religion as a critique of power”. Perhaps his thinking is the first in history, when religion was used as a political criticism. In addition, Augustine also describes the concept of legitimacy of power.

Thomas Aquinas

Thomas Aquinas was a famous theologian, very well known until this century. He dedicated his whole life to develop Christian doctrines. Until on his way of thinking, he had political and social issues. Thomas was born in in 1224 AD in Roccasecca and died in 1274 AD in Fossanuova. Thomas lives in a state of feudal. So then he formulated his theory of “natural law” magnitude in the works called “De Regimine Principum”. He formulated his writings in 1265 BC in the midst of life conditions of feudalism. He also stressed the views on the fight against tyranny and about politics and justice.

In English the meaning of jurisprudence was defined as a theory about study of law, while the sense of jurisprudence used in cluster systems “Case Law” or “Judge-made Law”. Then the word “Jurisprudenz” in German means the science of law, in the narrow sense (in school of Doctrine of Law), for example
Begriff-jurisprudenz, Interressen jurisprudenz and so forth. The technical term from German language for the the sense of jurisprudence, is the word “Ueberlieferung”.

The meaning of jurisprudence can be summarized as a source of law in the sense that formal. If studied from the theoretical aspect, the existence of jurisprudence is important when correlated against the duties of judges. While from the perspective of the legism school, the role of jurisprudence is relatively less important because it is assumed all the laws contained in the legislation. Therefore, judge in carrying out his duty is attached with what is in the law, thus act as law enforcement. Meanwhile, according to Freie Rechtsbewegung, judge in carrying out their duties is free, not tied to the content in any legislation.

This could happen since the judge duty is to perform “Rechtsschepping”, means to perform the creation of legal. Corollary, understanding jurisprudence are things that are substantial in the study of law, while studying law is of secondary nature. While according to rechtsvinding school, jurisprudence role is relatively important and this aspect was left to the discretion of the judge. According to this school, the judge is attached by the law, but not as tight as legism school, because the judge has a “freedom-bound” (gebonden Vrijheid) or “free entanglement” (Vrije Gebondenheid).

Therefore the task of the judge mentioned as do “Rechtsvinding” which means harmonize legislation in accordance with the spirit of the age. Freedom-bound and free entanglement is able through the various interpretations, such as the interpretation of the law, the analogy (abstraction),Rechtsverfijning/determinatie which makes specialization of a principle in the legislation that has a broad sense (from broad to specific). Studied from the perspective of judicial practice, then the meaning of jurisprudence in Anglo Saxon/Case Law system is binding with the principle “the binding force of precedent”.

To understand the science of law must not be separated from an understanding of the law itself, etymologically law has a diverse understanding. Rescoe Pound expressed it with the word “legal science”, it is very wrong if interpreted etymologically since in English legal is the roots of word lex (Latin), interpreted as law. In English law have two different senses, firstly is a set of prescriptions about what should be done in achieving justice and secondly, the rules of conduct aimed at creating a community order. Still according to Rescoe Pound, said that Jurisprudence in the broadest meaning is the “science” of law. That is the meaning of the original and etymological nature, and is about the best use.

The first sense in Latin was called as ius, droit in French, and recht in Dutch and German. While the second meaning in Latin is called lex, loi in French, wet in Dutch, and gesetz in German. The word law in English was derived from the word song, namely the rules made ??by the kings of Anglo-Saxon which has been codified. The song turned out to be in lex line and not ius. If this was followed, the term legal science will be meaningful as knowledge about the rule of law. This will cause a mismatch of meaning contained within the science itself.

In order to avoid that sort of thing, in English the science of law was appropriately referred to Jurisprudence. While the word Jurisprudence was derived from two Latin words, namely iusris which means the law and prudentia which means wisdom or knowledge. Thus, Jurisprudence means the knowledge of the law or interpreted also as science of law, legal theory and philosophy of law.

Jurisprudence is a discipline that is sui generis. So these studies are not included in the field of study which is empirical and evaluative. Jurisprudence is not merely the study of law, but more than that is the study of something about the law in a broadly sense. Hopefully, this article can help you understanding more about jurisprudence, its relationship with legal theory and philosophy of law.

Jurisprudence word comes from the two Latin words, iris which means the law and prudentia which means wisdom or knowledge. Thus, Jurisprudence is the knowledge of the law. From the etymological point of view, Robert L Hayman gives the sense about science of law, in this regard Jurisprudence, widely as anything that is theoretical about the law. From here, it can be seen that Jurisprudence is a field of science that stands alone, which can then be integral with other sciences.

As an independent science, the object of research of jurisprudence is the law itself, considering the study of law not as an empirical study, then Gijssels and van Hoecke said: Jurisprudence is a science in a systematic and organized about the symptoms of laws, power structures, norms, rights and obligations. Jurisprudence is a discipline that is sui generis. So these studies are not included in the study area which is empirical and evaluative.

Jurisprudence is not merely the study of law, but more than that is the study of something about the law in a broadly sense. Hari Chand accurately compares law students and medical students who study science fields respectively. He stated that medical students, who will study human anatomy, should study all body parts and structures, along with their relationships and its function. As well as a law student who will study the legal substance, he must also learn the concept of law, legal rules, structures and the function of law itself.

He further suggested that in addition they studied the human body as a whole; the students also need to study the external factors that affect the whole body system, such as heat, cold, water, germs, viruses, insects and others. Similarly with law students, that is studying the factors outside the law which affecting them, social factors, political, cultural, economic and values ??contained in other disciplines.

Legal theory was derived from legal thinkers, while the laws were derived from statute or court decisions. Philosophy of law contains elements of philosophy and political theory. Before the nineteenth century the famous legal thinkers are philosophers, clergy and politicians. In its development, philosophy of law emerged as the community dealing with issues of social justice.

The source of Common Law and Civil Law system is the law court decisions and legislations; otherwise the main source of philosophy of law (Legal Philosophy) was not a court decision or legislations but the work of its thinkers. Philosopher of law is not always a Bachelor of Law, W. Friedmann said: All Legal Theory systems must contain the elements of philosophy, reflection of man in his position to the universe, and obtain a specific color and content of political theory, the idea comes from how is the best shape of people.

Before the 19th century, legal theorists were known comes primarily from philosophers, church clergy and politicians. A new era from philosophy of law was born, mainly from the confrontation of professional legal practitioner, in their practices relating to issues of social justice. Therefore it can not be avoided, the analysis of philosophy of law at the outset emphasize more about general philosophy and political or legal theory. While modern legal theory emphasizes more about the expression and the way Bachelor of Law thinks.

What is the difference between philosophy of law and legal theory? Philosophy of law more often dissects the problem from the point of philosophical studies, and therefore stresses research and investigation from the point of the philosophical tradition. Meanwhile, legal theory tend to do it based on the operational form of legal academy, which tend to focus on rationalization and legitimating legal doctrine such as tort and contract. Of course, all aspects discussed in philosophy of law come from legal theory, which is always derived from the philosophy of law itself.

Speaking of the origins of philosophy, many writings assume that philosophy starts from the West or Greece, for author the assumption or statement is not entirely correct. I personally prefer the expression that stated the beginning of philosophy originally started from the East. Many opinions say that the birth of philosophy comes from Greek, while some are saying that philosophy began from Islam. To be more neutral, I think it is better if I try to just map this opinion into three different ideas to become more apparent and readers will judge for themselves where the actual origin of philosophy is begun. The opinions are as follows:

The Beginning Of Philosophy Comes From The West

This group believes that the man who first revealed that philosophy comes from Greek is the great philosopher of its nation, Aristotle in the 4th century (384-322 BC). He believes that philosophy was first developed by Thales (640-550 BC) in the mid-6th Century. They also believe that the first nation who discovers sports, natural science, and philosophy is the Greek. I need to also reveal that many western thinkers who are agreed with this first group, among these are Bertrand Russell, Hanry Pierre and others. The most surprising is that many Muslim philosophers, especially from Arab countries, which is also in tune with the above thinkers, includes: Alfarabi (950-870 AD)—the recognition of the beginning of Greek philosophy is contained in one of his manuscripts about Plato and Aristotle, there are also Asy-Syahrastani and Ibn Kholdun which agrees with Alfaribi.

Their arguments:

1. The word Philosophy is the original Greek word, and is not located in any first language of another nation. According to Greeks, the word “philosophy” is consists of 2 words: philos (lover, friend) and sophia (discretion, wisdom). And the very first person who used this word is Phytagoras around the year of 582-507 BC.
2. The world’s first philosopher was Thales (640-550 BC), Greek citizen, and he speaks with Greek language.
3. The inventor of the science of logic, physics, and sports is the Greek.

The Beginning Of Philosophy Comes From The East

This particular group believes that philosophy comes from the East/Islam, to be exact in some countries just like India, Persia, Iraq and ancient Egypt. One philosopher who agree with the opinion is Imam Ghazali (1111-1059 AD), which he expressed on his book “al-Munqidz min adh-Dholal”. Philosophers have taken the political rules of the books of God revealed to the prophets. In addition to Ghazali, Alqifthi also revealed the opinion in his book “Akhbar al-’Ulama”. And what’s interesting is there are few of the European thinkers who also agree with Ghazali and Alqifthi, they are Will Durant in his book “The Story of Cultural”, George Shartoon in his book “The History of Science”, and Masoon Orsel in his book “Philosophy in East”.

Their arguments:

1. Research experts have found that the initial idea was began to flourish in the East.
2. Historians claim that the philosophers of the west/Greek such as Thales, Phytaghoras, Demokrithos (460-370 BC), Plato and others have religious visit to take a variety of Ancient Egyptian science.
3. Western ideas are adaptations from the thoughts of the east.

Impartial Group

This group divides the beginning of philosophy into two phases (a combination of the two opinions above). The first phase: philosophy (in general) as a discussion which takes the idea that physics and metaphysics is derived from the ancient East. Phase two: philosophy (specifically) as a discipline that has been systematically (already widely codified through the books) came from West/Greek.

From the above explanation it is clear that the beginning of philosophy is proceed through two phases. The strengthen argument is, the East goes before West from the discoveries side of science such as: natural sciences, astronomy, and many others. Many western philosophers who study various sciences one of them is a philosophy (which isn’t systematic yet) and they perfected to become a systematic discipline. The analogue like this: Aristotle is the inventor of the science of logic, but didn’t rule the possibility that eastern people have already discovered the science of logic, which hasn’t been systematic and yet make it as a scientific discipline.