Minorities, Epistemology, Humanities: Who Is to Blame and What Is to Be Done

Abstract

This paper endeavours to provide a general overview of the minority support idea (and wokeism in general) with an accent on religious and theological issues. The article traces the background of wokeism in humanities (from Liberal Protestantism of the late 19th century to the crisis of non-classical epistemology in the first half of the 20th century, the epistemological relativism and anarchism that followed, and the sexualisation of the public field after 1968). Popper’s concept of falsification assumes an eternal search for truth with its eternal elusiveness, Feierabend defends the relativity of rationality and the acceptability of rejecting it, while Foucault views cultural reality as a mere discourse without a beginning or an end, which is essentially legitimate to be subjected to arbitrary interpretations. Religious organisations and communities of the West embraced the growing minority protection agenda because of a need to maintain an already low number of parishioners. Moreover, this agenda acted successfully as a vaccine against socialist ideas: the struggle for equality and opportunity was shifted from a material to a symbolic realm; this minimised the danger of social protest. For Russian intellectuals, it is especially important that the described agenda is not to borrow in a non-Western context without significant distortion, since it instrumentalises the traumas of namely Western history. A substantial opposition to wokeism should presuppose a good acquaintance with the Western history of ideas of the 20th century — otherwise it is inconceivable. Without doubt, wokeist intentions should be opposed by an alternative (inter)national proactive agenda.