The issue of the foundations of justice

In: Vestnik Sankt-Peterburgskogo universiteta: Vestnik of Saint-Petersburg University. Filosofija i konfliktologija = Philosophy and conflict studies, Band 38, Heft 2, S. 152-164

Abstract

This article analyzes justice as a category. Like all aspects of human activity, justice needs grounds that provide reliability. This article shows that in the history of human thinking, two approaches to comprehending the foundations of justice have been created. The first approach is based on recognition of the dominance of moral principles as the foundation for justice, and independence from empirical reality, political, social changes, and scientific discoveries. This is the independent path, which recognizes the independence of the fundamental principles of justice from facts. The second approach was formulated in the theory of justice by J.Rawls. He made an attempt to create a universal view of justice and was associated with the justification of justice by scientific theories created by scientists in political science, psychology, sociology, and other fields of knowledge. This approach was called dependent way, and its representatives consider justice to be a product of real society and recognize the consent of citizens as the basis of justice, in the normative life of society, giving preference to contractual relations. Both ways of solving the problem of the justice foundations have their strengths and weaknesses, but neither of them, taken separately, gives a satisfactory result. The experience of the Russian unity philosophy reveals a harmonious way to the solution of this problem. It shows that the foundation of justice is created by each individual personally, in condition that any person considers the circumstances of one's life through the prism of his spiritual nature. This process looks like a practical application of norms that are absolute in nature, while deviations and fluctuations are possible but in the end there is always a return to the original position. The authors call this position flexible transcendence.