Образ человека будущего, Том 7 (СИ)

The main forms of Evil (quite real and tangible in terms of traditional moral), according to Marx, are alienation and exploitation. Besides, he as a more dangerous, "evil" and metaphysical phenomenon considers alienation. Exploitation is an obvious evil and therefore is easier to cope with. Additionally, alienation can also take latent forms. Alienation of goods from their cost, of a person from work, eventually there are singular forms of more general alienation - a form from its contents, existence from its embodiment, phenomenon from essence. This interpretation of Marx has been subsequently deeply developed by the theorists of Frankfurt school, primarily Erich Fromm and Herbert Marcuse, whose works we will refer to again later on.

While Nietzsche actually encourages to take Evil for Good and to accept "morals of the strong" (i.e. actually immoralism) instead of "morals of the weak", Marx calls for a fight against the evil. Actually the whole history of the conflict theory development, including its latest versions (e.g. Paul J. Taylor, Paul Walton, Juliette Young) [Gilinsky, 2013: 116-120], was inspired by the idea of overcoming Evil whose roots can be found in the wrong social structure that makes exploitation and alienation possible, which in turn are the reasons for the individual evil. However, the field of scientific and philosophical discourse on the evil topic is not yet complete with the opposition of Marxism and postmodernism (or better to say, of soteriology and nihilism).

Another direction of theorizing on the subject of Evil is set by critical rationalism and, first of all, by its most famous representative - Karl Raimund Popper. In "The Open Society and Its Enemies" Popper, likewise Marx, argues about the need to overcome Evil [Popper, 1992]. Similarly to Marx, he finds the reasons for it in the wrong social structure together with the "wrong" thinking (but if, following Marx, this is incorrect class-consciousness, according to Popper - it"s the lack of critical rationality). Yet, the main form of the social Evil for Popper is "totalitarianism" (which is inevitably connected with violence to an individual) and he apparently compared collectivism to it in all manifestations. This is the first fundamental contradiction between Popper and Marx: for the latter collectivism acts as one of the conditions

40 Future Human Image. Volume 7, 2017

Evil as a Subject of Sociological Cognition: Methodological Reflections by Temyr Khagurov

of eradicating Evil (social exclusion); the former, Popper, considered individualism to be the absolute social benefit (though its grounds are not quite logical and explanatory) associated with mercy and rationality. At the same time, Popper"s instruction for overcoming Evil is directly opposite to Marx"s guideline: one must not fight Evil taking "big steps" - it inevitably generates the bigger Evil. It is necessary to improve rational and technological devices so as to "eradicate Evil in small portions", gradually changing the separate aspects of social reality. The conflict of the ideas "Marx vs. Popper" caused the main political opposition of the 20th century between liberalism and communism, which demonized each other, announced each other "the empires of Evil" and managed it from the related methodological positions of

Enlightenment and belief in Mind.

However, even if we neglect the political aspects, the Popper-Marx argument (also with

Plato) is an acute modern debate about the values of science. Should science take up the

"world-saving" mission, as if inheriting that from its foundation ancestor - theology? On the other hand, is its major mission - the impersonal and pure world discovery? Is there any place for values within the boundaries of science? If there is, then which way of manifestation does it take? Moreover, is that true to life that the road to hell is paved with good intentions, or can this road possibly lead to some other place? Was Popper right when he said: "Nowadays I see more clearly than any time before that even the greatest of our mischiefs come from something equally inspiring and dangerous, namely - from our burning desire to make the life of our fellow men better" [Popper, 1992]. These implied, though obvious in the first place, questions need a careful and steady approach, as well as a process of separate consideration, which cannot fit in the space of this article.

Further, in the primary case study, we will try to describe the most successful experiences of scientific reflection of the evil at the first approximation.