Образ человека будущего, Том 7 (СИ)

Speaking about the immanence of evil, its rootedness in everyday life of a market society, he is echoed by one of the most impressive modern representatives of critical sociology - Michael Hoffman, "The ideals of the 60s - high morality, social responsibility, the right to personal freedom - lost their appeal, lost their social and moral pathos. <...> The scope of criminal offences is just the top of the iceberg - they are the index of the desire to find the shortest path to success which is widely accepted in the society. <...> All segments of the population are involved in the business game, everyone exploits everyone. In the dynamics of the transition of banknotes from one hand to the other, they find themselves in the most vigorous, the most shameless, the most flexible people in achieving personal success. They advance the economy, increasing its efficiency in general, throughout the country" [Hoffman, 2015].

Finally, it is worth mentioning the widely known scientific papers, which are directly aimed at the subject considered. In the first place, these are the works by Jean Baudrillard, who identifies Evil with the repressive artificiality of consumer society that is inhumane and destroys the reality of genuine existence: "Thus, all our categories have entered the era of unnatural where the matter does not concern desire, but forcing to desire, it does not concern action, but forcing to do it, it does not concern cost, but forcing to cost (this can be exemplified by any advertisement), it does not concern cognition, but forcing to know, and, at last, the last but not the least - it does not concern pleasure but forcing to enjoy. < ...> Strong motives or, in other words, positive, selective, appealing impulses have disappeared. <...> And the complex of Evil will, rejection and disgust, on the contrary, have become brighter. <...> Perhaps, it is some new form of the Evil principle. <...>?" [Baudrillard, 2000].

This is quite an acute description of manifestations of Evil in consumer society, but unfortunately, it does not correspond to a somehow distinct strategy of its overcoming. On the

42 Future Human Image. Volume 7, 2017

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

contrary, the logic of Jean Baudrillard about "metaphysical inseparability of Good and Evil" [Baudrillard, 2000: 156] leads eventually to the acceptance of "normality" of the evil: "An illusion that makes us think that it is possible to separate Good from Evil so as to develop one thing or another is just absurd (it dooms those, whose objective is to retaliate evil with evil, to weakness because eventually they do good)" [Baudrillard, 2000: 163].

Moreover, there is a profound and thorough research of an issue of Evil that was undertaken by Lars Svendsen in terms of critical rationalism [Svendsen, 2008]. Svendsen, along with all liberal individualists, obviously accepts a prejudiced approach to the facts of the Soviet-Russian history - for example, when talking about "the most serious war crimes committed by Russians in Chechnya since World War II" [Svendsen, 2008: 297]. However, he is much deeper and more "humanitarian" than his scientific colleagues Karl Popper and Friedrich Hayek. Consistently studying the problems of theology and anthropology of Evil, observing violence and cruelty as its main forms, Svendsen defends the praxeological aspect of his approach in researches of the evil: "It is also clear that, basically, none of us is insured against a nuisance of committing evil by oneself. <...> Evil is not "others", but also "we" are ourselves. <...> Evil, first of all, is a practical problem, but not theoretical. . <...> First of all evil should be referred to spheres of personal morality and politics. < ...> The necessity of fighting Evil is an axiom of any moral, it also has to be the same for politics" [Svendsen, 2008: 247, 292].

In conclusion to this fragmentary and inevitably superficial review of literature on the subject of the research (or rather the most noticeable tendencies of its development in the 20th century) some Russian scientists should also be mentioned.

First of all, the works of Yury Davydov - perhaps, the most prominent of the domestic social scientists, who touches upon the issues of Evil [Davydov, 1975; Davydov, 1989; History of Theoretical, 2002].

Interesting ideas about human Spirit and conflict Good and Evil in it we found in works of Andrey A. Ostapenko [Ostapenko & Shuvalov, 2012; Ostapenko, 2014].

The works of Alexander Panarin written with a profoundly Orthodox approach are qualitative theoretical papers and they are considered as a very serious research in the field of "political nature of the Evil" [Panarin, 2002].

Undoubtedly, the major theoretical and methodological achievement of the last several years are the scholarly writings of Sergey E. Kurginyan that correspond a profound analysis of forms and roots of Evil with praxeology and politics [Kurginyan, 2009].