Nogovitsin O.N. Moral sources of civilizational development in liberalism and traditionalism: the concept of conscience of the people by Immanuel Kant and in the prose of Eremey Aipin. In: Civilizational diversity of the modern world: [monograph] ...

Abstract

The conceptualization of the notion of conscience of people in the idealistic socio-philosophical doctrines of the end of XVIII – first half of XIX centuries, where the given notion is taken as a source of historical process, became one of the theoretical basics of shaping the social sciences. For the best exemplification of this conceptualization, the liberal theory of society by I. Kant could be supposed to emerge. In the paper, we evaluate Kantian theoretical construction of the universal concept of conscience in comparison with the traditional concept of conscience in pre-class society exemplified by the Khanty society as depicted in the prose of E.D. Aipin and modern studies. The liberal theory of society of I. Kant is a source of principal conceptual narratives of modern liberal politics in all the spheres of social life. The feature of his theory is that he conceptualizes the rupture between the traditional concept of morality and religion, where the inclinations of morality are suppressed by the system of religious prejudices and superstitions, and liberal modernity as a phenomenal manifestation of historical transition to a new social formation grounded on the universal concept of morality, which is centered, in Kant’s thought, by a concept of conscience interpreted as a means of absolute justification of human activity. According to this model, the consequences of moral actions by the virtue of occasionality of manifestation of all the consequences of actions determined out of the intelligible reality of practical reason in the world of nature are indifferent to moral consciousness. This image of “pure conscience” is directly opposite to the traditional concept of conscience proper to the people of Khanty: unlike the subject of the Kantian version of liberal moral conscience, which principally needs no external confirmation of the goodness of his/her actions, the traditional model of subjectivity, on the contrary, is constructed upon the confirmation of their moral adequacy. The literary version of moral reflection represented in the prose of E.D. Aipin gives a testimony not of a pure conscience and a political project of realization of its potential in the world, but rather of sick conscience, that is, caring of real needs of individuals and the entire people.