THE DISCOURSE OF VIOLENCE IN THE HISTORICAL-PHILOSOPHICAL TRADITION OF THE MODERN ERA

This article analyzes the views on violence as a social phenomenon by representatives of the Modern Era and German classical philosophy, such as John Locke, Immanuel Kant, and Georg Hegel. It demonstrates that these views generally converge on the idea that violence is rooted in the aggressiveness inherent to living matter, with the ontological basis of this aggressiveness being the drive of any system towards expansion. At the same time, the discourse on violence in the historical-philosophical tradition of the Modern Era almost always focused on its ethical aspects. It is argued that views on violence during the Modern Era aimed to create a fundamentally new picture of human social development, provide a philosophical justification for its autonomous social status, and develop moral-legal theories and models of socio-political structure.