Гуманитарные ведомости. Вып. 4(50) 2024 г

Гуманитарные ведомости ТГПУ им. Л. Н. Толстого № 2 (50), июль 2024 г 25 MORAL ABSOLUTES (ONE MORE HISTORICAL PARALLEL OF A. A. GUSSEINOV ’ S NEGATIVE ETHICS) In this paper, timed to the 85th anniversary of Academician A. A. Gusseinov, the normative dimension of his negative ethics is reconstructed. It is determined by the idea of the absoluteness of morality. According to A. A. Gusseinov, the claim of morality to absoluteness relates to the fact that the entire edifice of morality rests on fundamental prohibitions that require the moral agent to perform negative acts. An absolute prohibition has the categorical character, i.e., such prohibitions do not allow any situational exceptions or justified derogations. The absence of exceptions makes the normative content of the prohibition unambiguous (morality cannot say exactly what we should do, but it can say exactly what we should not do). The compliance with an absolute prohibition is precisely recorded both by the moral agent him/herself and by others. The self-deception with respect to the motives for the compliance with an absolute prohibition is impossible. Absolute prohibitions create a rigid framework within which positive moral precepts with relative status are formed and operate. Among the historical parallels of negative ethics, researchers usually point to I. Kant (especially his rejection of benevolent lies), L. N. Tolstoy and A. Schweitzer. However, the range of typologically similar ethical doctrines is noticeably wider. This article compares the normative dimension of negative ethics with the normative program of the traditionalist moral theology of Catholicism at the end of the 20th century. The main subject of comparison is John Finnis's ethical manifesto Moral Absolutes: Tradition, Revision, and Truth (1991). Finnis defines moral absolutes as fundamental, exceptionless moral prohibitions in which what is prohibited is characterized without the use of evaluative concepts, as easily identifiable, inherently wrong acts that are excluded from the moral agent's deliberation. This definition is very close to A. A. Gusseinov ’ s understanding of the absoluteness of morality. There is also another point of similarity. It is A. A. Gusseinov ’ s and J. Finnis ’ s argumentation against ethical theories that seek to relativize moral prohibitions, giving them the status of general guidelines that can be suspended in particular situations. J. Finnis criticizing Catholic proportionalists as well as A. A. Gusseinov criticizing the position of Russian situationists on the permissibility of the use of force and deception points to the inevitable disintegration of the entire mechanics of moral choice if it is based on the concept of the lesser evil. It should be noted that, for all the similarities in methodological approaches, negative ethics and Catholic traditionalism only partially coincide in their answers to the question of which prohibitions should be considered absolute. Keywords: morality, ethics, absolute prohibitions, negative ethics, Catholic moral theology, proportionalism, A. A. Gusseinov, J. Finnis DOI 10.22405/2304-4772-2024-1-2-24-37 Моральный абсолютизм: версия Абдусалама Гусейнова Понятие «абсолютный», как и производные от него понятия «абсолютность» и «абсолютизм», играют важную роль в моральной философии Абдусалама Абдулкеримовича Гусейнова. Абсолютными он называет как саму мораль, так и некоторые конкретные моральные феномены. Довольно часто мораль характеризуется им в качестве обладающей «претензией на абсолютность». И в этом случае имеется в виду как мораль в ее стихийно складывающихся, нерефлексивных формах (у А. А. Гусейнова буквально: «массовидных и повседневных проявлениях морального сознания»), так и, в особенности, в рамках того архетипического образа, который возникает на основе философской рефлексии особенностей существования человека в мире [12, с. 202]. В ряде случаев понятие «абсолютный» соседствует у А. А. Гусейнова с понятием «безусловный» и даже более того – приближается к нему по смыслу или используется как синоним. В других случаях понятие «абсолютный» находится в тех же отношениях с понятиями «категорический»