Fundamental Ethics of P. A. Kropotkin and L. N. Tolstoy and the “New Ethics” of Postmodernism

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to analyze the moral and ethical concepts of Kropotkin and Tolstoy, that became the fundamental ethics of Russian social thought in the early twentieth century. The significance of these ethics is essential for the resolution of contemporary socio-cultural problems pressing on Russian statehood in the post-Soviet era. The crisis in the spiritual sphere of Russian society has forced the issues of preserving traditional values through legislative acts and decrees. The aim of this study is to identify the cultural and philosophical foundations of ethical concepts of Russian thinkers using established paradigmatic approaches. The division of ethics into fundamental and applied, i.e. professionally oriented, is the methodological basis of our study. The novelty of the article lies in the fact that the thesis of super-relevance of Kropotkin’s and Tolstoy’s fundamental ethics today in the context of the crisis of traditional values that has embraced the whole post-Soviet space, including Russia, is argued. One of the leading developers of the concept was the postmodernist Michel Foucault, who argued that freedom is an ontological condition of ethics. Ethics is the form that freedom takes in different socioeconomic and political contexts. The general conclusion is that the main line for the ethical outlook of Kropotkin and Tolstoy was their social sharpening, which today can be seen as the antithesis of postmodernist values. For Kropotkin, the social orientation of ethics was ensured by the universality of the principle of mutual help and support in Nature and Society. For Tolstoy, it is rationalistically justified and based on the principles of solidarity and justice, based on the Christian precepts of the beatitudes. Tolstoy’s moral utilitarianism rested on the idea of the universality of the principle of non-violence in social life, on the philosophy of the social good.

Keywords:

fundamental and professional ethics, postmodern ‘new ethics’, self-care, ethics as a practical philosophy, Kropotkin’s naturalistic ethics, Tolstoy’s moral utilitarianism, the social orientation of fundamental ethics