III.
ARISTOTLE ON RATIONAL LAW
Reason is the life of the law, nay the common law is nothing else but reason.
-Sir Edward Coke, Institutes: Commentary upon Littleton
Aristotle, the Father of Biology, is also regarded as the Father of Natural Law, having
articulated the existence of natural justice or natural right (dikaion physikon). He was the student
of Plato and the tutor of Alexander the Great, whose Hellenic empire spread the Greek civilization
and tested Aristotle’s thought that because men have a common nature, common laws could work.
Towering statues in stone of this classic philosopher and his mentor Plato hail atop the Main
Building (first and third statues left of the Tria Haec facing España Boulevard) of the University
of Santo Tomas in Manila, the oldest existing university in Asia where Philippine bar exams are
being held.
Aristotle observed that human beings have a rational nature that must be followed as a
matter of law. Although there are “particular or conventional laws” suited to each culture and times,
there is a “common law,” a “natural law,” a “general justice” by which men can objectively judge
whether certain laws serve their being human. Natural law must not be confused with animalistic
biologism because man as a moral creature has advanced from primitivity. The best political
system is supposed to cultivate human nature.
In the Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle said that happiness is the final goal or end (telos) of
all of man’s pursuits. As much as people seek different goods, so do they have different views of
what can make them happy. But while people have different functions and interests in life, they
have a common function — reasoning — that separates them from other species.
To live well — to excel or flourish — is to function well. Reason makes us perceive what
is excessive, pursue a balanced life, and to seek what is appropriate, fair, just, and right; in other
words, the “golden mean” of living. Virtue is the practice of reason. A happy person has the
disposition (hexis) to virtue (arete); being a man of “character” (ethos), of moderation. The law
bids us to do the acts of a balanced and temperate man. “Virtue jurisprudence” would thus ask the
question: “Is this what a virtuous lawyer would do?” “Would a virtuous judge agree?”
The Filipino hero, Jose Rizal, copied Aristotle in his Los Viajes article: “Virtue lies in the
middle ground.” Tolentino also followed the Aristotelian view that the purpose of law is
“happiness, which cannot exist for man, except through a permanent and stable equilibrium
between human personalities” (Commentaries and Jurisprudence on the Civil Code of the
Philippines I, 3).
In his Politics, Aristotle said that man, being a social animal, needs to live in a community.
Man’s first association is the family, then the neighborhood village, then the polis or city-state. All
these institutions are natural since no man is self-sufficient. Man is given the faculty of language
because he needs to socialize effectively.
Kinds of Government
Aristotle distinguished six types of constitutions. The first three are monarchy (one-man
rule), aristocracy (rule of few good men), and polity (rule of men with equal merits). Their worst
forms are the last three: tyranny, oligarchy, and radical democracy. Polity or democracy is the most
stable since monarchy risks the intemperance of its leader, while rivalries and infighting hound an
aristocracy. The aim of a good state is “the good life,” with the middle class as the basis of progress.
Democracies are more secure when there is a large number of empowered middle class than when
a population is divided into the extremes of poor and rich. Both the rich and the poor classes have
the tendency to inequity.
A good government establishes a political law that conforms with rational principles of
right and equity. There must be a constitution (politeia) that provides general rules and guidelines
on the administration of the State. But for the particulars of the organization of offices, the
contingencies of life, and for settlement of future disputes, laws (nomos) must be promulgated.
When there is a grey area in the law, equity (epikeia) must be resorted to properly apply
and interpret the law. Interestingly, the Philippine Supreme Court has appealed to equity whenever
the law or a contract is silent or inadequate. “Lest it be forgotten, our courts are courts of both law
and equity” (DPWH v. Ronaldo Quiwa, et al., G.R. No. 183444, February 8, 2012). Article 10 of
the New Civil Code also provides that “in case of doubt in the interpretation or application of laws,
it is presumed that the lawmaking body intended right and justice to prevail.”
