Abstract

Perhaps no social topic contains as many contradictions as humanism. And everytime, in one era or another, the paradoxical nature of the problem of humanity re-veals itself from an unexpected side. It is not perceived as an unforeseen situa-tion when humanism is painted in misanthropic tones. There is no particular concernabout the situation when humanism turns out to be a simulacrum and in its essence ex-presses an ordinary emptiness. In various arrangements of humanism, we are talking about the cult of man, but manhimself is seen as an evil, destructive creature. They talk about the inevitability of hu-manity, but paradoxically they put race, ethnicity and other social formations insteadofa person. Abstract and concrete humanism are distinguished, but a real person findshimself in the chains of totalitarianism. Ordinary crimes are covered up with humanis-tic rhetoric.The author of the article reflects on the paradoxes that are revealed upon closer exami-nation of this concept.