T. Fiveg’s topics and jurisprudence in the context of Aristotle’s teaching

The small essay “Topics and Jurisprudence”, which was published in 1953 by a then obscure assistant professor of the Mainz University Theodor Viehweg, boldly challenged the self-complacency of the corner stone of legal positivism, i.e. the thesis of the hierarchical structure of legal norms. Moreover, Viehweg maintained that legal thinking is sooner inductive and problematic, than deductive and abstract. Viehweg is even eager to dismiss the term “problem” in favour of the more stringent term “aporia”. This word rather means a dead-end problem with inherent contradictions, demanding nonetheless an obligatory solution. The author compared the main theses of legal topics with the original views of Aristotle, who had laid the philosophical foundation of topics as a tool of philosophical investigations. The author concludes that in order to rejuvenate the theoretical basis of jurisprudence Viehweg tried to sublimate the “topical method”, which according to Aristotle had to play a rather modest role as a “one more” didactic tool.