A Nominalist Reconstruction of Morality, Justice, and Law: Spiral Concepts and the Belonging Paradigm

ABSTRACT Morality, justice, and law encompass not only individual conduct but also institutional functioning and political legitimacy, and they make it possible for them to be grasped in relation to one another. Their semantic fields take shape through dynamic interaction within historical, cultural, economic, and political contexts. Traditionally, however, the contents of these concepts have been explained by grounding them in immutable essences or transcendent principles; this approach has not only overlooked their historical transformations and contextual reciprocity but has also paved the way for interpreting their contents from a dogmatic standpoint. In this study the problem is approached within a nominalist framework: instead of defining morality, justice, and law through immutable essences, they are interpreted (from a nominalist standpoint) within a relation of helicity (sarmallık). To this end, the trajectory of these concepts from ancient philosophy, by way of medieval theology, to the Enlightenment is traced, and in particular their relations to moral absolutism, belonging, and normative authority are examined. Thus an attempt is made to ground the contents of these concepts not through a static conception of truth but within a dynamic paradigm open to critique, reasoning, and historical development. KEYWORDS Nominalism, realistic nominalism, moral philosophy, justice, law, spiral concepts