The phenomenon of justice: from theory to the ideas of Alikhan Bukeikhanov

Abstract

This article offers a philosophical interpretation of justice as a multidimensional sociocultural, moral-legal, and political phenomenon and identifies the specific features of its interpretation in the intellectual legacy of Alikhan Bukeikhanov. The purpose of the study is to reveal the theoretical foundations of the concept of justice, analyze the main approaches to its understanding in global social-philosophical thought, and determine the relevance of these ideas for contemporary Kazakhstani society. The article examines conceptions of justice presented in the works of J. Rawls, F. von Hayek, M. Sandel, and other researchers. The methodological basis of the study consists of social-philosophical, historical-comparative, hermeneutic, and axiological approaches, which make it possible to consider justice as a category linking normative, institutional, and value dimensions. The study finds that justice cannot be reduced to legality, formal equality, or individual moral qualities; rather, it expresses a holistic principle for evaluating and organizing social relations. It is shown that in Alikhan Bukeikhanov’s views, justice functions as an integrative principle that unites the responsibility of authority, the common good, the ethics of labor, the critique of social injustice, and the idea of national-state self-determination. The article concludes that A. Bukeikhanov’s philosophical and socio-political ideas retain methodological and practical significance for understanding the problem of justice in contemporary Kazakhstan.

Keywords: justice, legal system, A. Bukeikhanov, legality, ideal of justice.