Social and philosophical interpretations of the public sense of justice

The notions of the sense of justice in social philosophy are multifaceted. Therefore, it is relevant to summarize its classical and modern definitions. In Russian personalism, the sense of justice was reviewed as an indispensable “spiritual organ” of an active personality which was able to construct a social reality, including the scope of legal relations. In modern interpretations, the emphasis is primarily on the attitude of the personality to a specific positive law. Based on two points, the author developed an appropriate definition of the public sense of justice as a necessary component of public consciousness. This notion determines the legal creativity of the personality and is reflected in a concrete succession system of relations of the community’s representatives to the positive law. This system is subject to modifications in the social and historical process under the influence of the factors listed in the research.