Philosophical Understanding of the Power of Law: Conscience and Dignity in the Origins of People's Organic Life

Abstract

This article attempts to interpret conscience and dignity in the context of legal changes in Russian society, based on the position about the moral sense of law in the traditional legal culture. The author supposes that the categories of conscience and dignity in Russian tradition have not individualistic meaning, but are connected with existential dimension; they bring law to the state of being applied to national organic life, where the measure is conscience as a phenomenon of national self-consciousness. Concluding that the traditional legal culture substantiates the understanding of conscience as the key to human dignity, the author considers the moral regulation of the dialogue between society and state, power and people to be self-evident.