“Freedom from values is not a tool of scientific research, it is its final point”

Abstract

The interview raises issues of institutionalization of sociology of social sciences and humanities, prospects of sociology as a scientific discipline, mechanisms of academic recognition. Sociology is interpreted as a form of organized self-deception, the place and relevance of the principle of freedom from values in scientific work is discussed. Interviewers:  Andrey Gerasimov is an independent researcher. E-mail: agerasimov@eu.spb.ru. Irina Dudenkova is an Associate Professor at the RANEPA Faculty of Philosophy and Sociology, Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the MSSES, Senior Lecturer at the Department of Philosophy of Religion and Religious Studies at the Faculty of Theology of the Saint Tikhon’s Orthodox University. E-mail: dudenkova-iv@universitas.ru.

For citation: Gerasimov, A. (2026) “Freedom from values is not a tool of scientific research, it is its final point”. Interviewers: A. Gerasimov, I. Dudenkova. Russia’s Directions. Vol. 4. No. 2. P. 9–35.

Additional Info

Submitted: December 3, 2025

Copyright: © Auhtors, 2026

Distribution: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)