Theory of morality and the origins of social sciences: the concept of conscience by I. Kant and in the prose by Ye. D. Aypin

Introduction: conceptualization of the notion of conscience in the idealistic socio-philosophical doctrines of the end of the XVIII - first half of XIX centuries became one of the theoretical basics of formation of the social sciences. In the article, we evaluate Kantian theoretical construction of the universal concept of conscience in comparison with the traditional concept of conscience as depicted in the prose of Ye. D. Aypin and modern researches on the Khanty people society.Objective: to identify the difference between the liberal conception of historical process development from the morality of human nature (conscience) and the traditional concept of conscience as the basis of society existence.Research materials: the corpus of Kant's works representing his theory of morality, religion and law, literary works of Ye. D. Aypin, and materials of ethnological and linguistic studies of the culture of Khanty people.Results and novelty of the research: I. Kant's liberal theory of society conceptualizes the gap between the traditional concept of morality and religion, in which prerequisites for development of morality are suppressed by a system of religious prejudices and superstitions, and liberal modernity based on the universal conception of morality, in the center of which he puts the concept of conscience as a mean of absolute justification of human activity. This image of a "clear conscience" is directly opposite to the traditional concept of conscience. A literary version of moral reflection presented in Ye. D. Aypin is not about clear conscience and a political project for the realization in the world of its potencies, but about the guilty conscience concerned on the real needs of individual persons and the people as a whole.The scientific novelty of the research lies in the fact that the concept of conscience in I. Kant is for the first time studied in a comparative perspective with the analysis of the traditional concept of conscience presented in Ye. D. Aypin and in the culture of the Khanty people.