Enthusiasts or Fanatics? Some Aspects of Zinoviev’s and Hume’s Anthropological Projects

Abstract

The logical sociology of Alexander Zinoviev represents the attempt to build a defi nitely scientifi c theory of society where human qualities are practically reduced to minimum and the axiological aspect is entirely excluded. Still, when creating such theory Zinoviev uses a particular anthropological concept and in the long run adds an ethical component. And this does not mean any violation of system logic, but constitutes the result of applying theory to the specifi c history of Russian society of the Communist period. It’s interesting to compare the purely theoretical approach of Zinoviev to the problem of society origin to that of the British philosopher David Hume. Hume, representing the enlightened paradigm, was convinced that not the most moral actions of certain individuals can turn around to the public benefi t in general. While examining Russian communism, Zinoviev follows a similar hypothesis. In doing so Zinoviev adds ethnological aspect to the anthropological one of his sociology: in particular, according to him, Communism in Russia appeared due to the specifi c qualities of Russian people. The theory of super-society, developed by Zinoviev, explains the global situation in the 21st century when two anthropological aspects collide:Russian communist and Western. The Russian project has suffered defeat in this collision and Zinoviev sees here the fault not only of the authorities but of the people as well.