On April 27, Igor Kon, an outstanding sociologist, anthropologist and sexologist, died. A man whose expert opinion we greatly appreciated, whose erudition we admired, with whom we always cooperated with great pleasure.
It is easy to talk with Igor Semenovich. Even on the phone — as if one feels how he leans forward slightly in order to better hear the interlocutor. Next to a famous scientist and a great personality, it seems that it would not be surprising to feel like someone small, insignificant. But in reality it turns out the opposite. Next to him, you seem to rise above yourself, become smarter. And kinder. And generally better. Igor Semenovich speaks on an equal footing. It’s always a dialogue. Not one obviously correct opinion, but an invitation to joint research and reflection.
He was born in 1928. He defended his first two dissertations — Ph.D. in history and philosophy — in 1950, under Stalin. However, he seemed to live in a parallel world. In the place where free philosophers walk in the gardens of the Academy, freely talking on any topic. He didn’t fight the system. And he wasn’t a part of it. He is an example of freethinking, complete freedom and independence of thought. This we can learn from him. Neither the system, nor the ideology, no one can prevent a person from thinking and speaking. Why wasn’t he afraid when the rest — almost everyone — were afraid? What gave him strength? We will no longer ask him — but we will ask ourselves, and in search of an answer, perhaps we will discover something new in ourselves.
His only ideology was the recognition of the value of the individual and his rights to singularity, originality, dissimilarity. For many of us, his books and articles have become a permission to be ourselves, to be different from others, to think and behave in our own way. And for how many have they become — and are becoming today — an example of tolerance, respect for every person? He was surprisingly open, but respectful of the boundaries of the individual — including his own. He was ready to endlessly share knowledge, but his personal life never became «public».
Igor Kon lived for almost 83 years, worked almost until the last day, his books were reprinted, new ones came out. And yet it seems: he left too early, it is unfair that we lost him … Thank you, Igor Semenovich, that you were, lived next to us, talked, answered our questions, that your works and our memory of you remain for us.
Olga Sulchinskaya, PSYCHOLOGIES
We publish the latest article by Igor Kon from the May issue of Psychologies, as well as a video interview recorded in the fall of 2010