Between Good and Evil. What is a Sociologist Necessary for

Abstract

In the relativized world, full of all kinds of self-appointed sages who are willing to give advice to others about how they should behave, and even more willing to assess the mistakes others do in their behavior – most often behind their back – sociologists are necessary, as they, keeping to the principles of their discipline, show the world that it is necessary to observe, they study and analyze only what actually exists: both good and evil, without pointing to what does not exist, and what – as it seems – should exist, without obstinate admonishing and telling others what is good and what is bad, and without overbearingly assessing other people’s conduct in dichotomous categories of good and evil. Observing this methodological rule meticulously is a characteristic feature of Janusz Mariański’s research technique; being also a priest and theologian, as a sociologist of religion and of morality he only studies social facts and rigorously avoids formulating evaluating judgments. He does not ask his interlocutors about refraining from actions that are not their duty, or the more so about motifs of such refraining, but about their actual actions and motifs guiding them, which should be the rule of behavior for any well-behaved man, anyway.