“Scientific Theory of Happiness”: The Concept of Progress by L.E. Obolensky

The article is devoted to the consideration of the views of the Russian sociologist of the XIX – early XX centuries. L.E. Obolensky on the problem of progress and represents an original study. The relevance of the topic is determined by the needs of mastering the contribution of Russian sociologists to sociological science. L.E. Obolensky’s sociology can be attributed to the so-called subjective school and reflects its main features – positivism, nominalism, activism and subjectivism. According to the classification of P.A. Sorokin, it is classified as so-called evaluative and “eudaimonistic”. Its inconsistency like any other evaluative theory of progressive social development is shown due to the inability to scientifically substantiate the progressive ideal. It is noted that the most significant in the sociologist’s approach are the attempt to synthesize the objectivist and subjectivist approaches to the interpretation of progress, the content of the progressive ideal formulated by the author (“developing personality”) and the reformist Theory of small deeds.