Kultura budowana słowami. Kilka uwag o związkach myśli polityczno-prawnej z retoryką klasyczną

The essence of European political-legal culture should be searched at its source, which stems from the practice of political-legal thought during the Greco-Roman period. A particular example of the cultural development process, including political and legal culture, is classical rhetoric. Bearing this in mind, the aim of the article is to point out the connections between classical rhetoric and political-legal thought. The intention of the author is to draw the readers’ attention to four selected connections described as: objec- tive, subjective, purposive and didactic. Objective connections are based on the assump- tion of common interests of rhetoric and the history of political-legal doctrines, related to the issues of law, authority and state. Subjective connections are the results of the fact that classical rhetoricians are simultaneously the creators of political-legal doctrines, and they are also those who contributed to the development of rhetoric art. The text of the article also points out the purposive connections between rhetoric and political-legal thought. They are the outcome of the mutual creation of political and legal culture, by referring to the idea of the good of the state or institutional and legal issues. In addition the article illustrates the merits of increasing the role of the issues related to rhetoric when teaching the history of political-legal doctrines.